


Eternal Legacy

by 1358456



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: Adventure & Romance, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-02-19 01:42:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 71,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22569919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1358456/pseuds/1358456
Summary: An Ao3 re-upload of the story of the same name on FF.net, Eternal Legacy (January 27, 2017 - Discontinued on September 5, 2020).A story based on Pokémon Special, the manga. The Dex Holders have a legacy of protecting the world from evil in times of chaos, but have normal lives in peaceful times. When a former evil starts to rise, they must do whatever it takes to prevent chaos, but is it all a part of a grander scheme?
Relationships: Black/White (Pokemon), Blue | Green/Red (Pokemon), Platinum Berlitz/Diamond, X/Y | Yvonne Gabena
Kudos: 12





	1. Prologue - Kanto

**Author's Note:**

> Legacy is set after the XY arc, but compresses the age gaps between several Dex Holders in order to prevent a 20 year gap between the oldest and the youngest.
> 
> Warning:  
> As usual in my stories, Legacy will contain scenes of blood, not entirely gruesome content (no one’s going to lose a limb, for example), and will definitely have some bad f*cking language.
> 
> Note:  
> Due to the sheer amount of necessary background events for Legacy, the first 3 chapters will all be prologues, divided by region. This 3-part prologue will also serve as most of the slow build-up before sh*t really starts happening.

Prologue – Kanto:

May 28, One Island, 11 am…

Blue finished packing up her belongings in her bag. There… really wasn’t much to pack. She never really had much stuff to begin with, given her past. For years, she had to steal the bare necessities in order to live, and never had the luxury of having… fancy stuff. Even now, her belongings mostly consisted of a sketchbook, an extra set of clothes, a small handful of beauty products, and a small selection of high tech devices that she had stolen many years ago that she had tinkered with and improved upon in her spare time.

She looked at her bag and sighed. … She never really had a lot of stuff. And she was about to have a lot less. Right now, she was living in her parents’ house, with her new… _old_ family. She didn’t know what to say, actually. Living with her parents didn’t really turn out as she thought it would. Before she met them again, she always dreamed about it, living as a whole happy family. Maybe deep inside, she knew that it wouldn’t really work out, but she never gave much thought about it.

But nowadays, Blue had plenty of time to think, and she knew that things weren’t working out. She loved her parents, of course, and they loved her. But she had spent nearly 12 years living by herself since her kidnapping to the reunion. She had grown far too independent. Similarly, her parents had lived 12 years without her. They were certainly not used to the independent girl that was their daughter.

And of course, there was the _new_ family member. Her parents had another kid. … Another daughter. Blue had very… mixed feelings about this. On one hand, she was used to acting like an older sister (thanks to Silver), so she was okay. And having a younger sister was… fun. But on the other, it was clear that her parents had moved on since the kidnapping, and this new daughter was basically a replacement. And at times, Blue got the impression that she was… intruding on a happy little family of 3. Most of the times, she felt like a complete stranger.

For years, Blue tried to get close to her new family, but failed. No matter how hard she tried, she still felt like a stranger intruding on a happy little family. To her parents, she felt like a reminder of a bad past. Her existence alone seemed to remind them of the daughter they lost due to kidnapping, and the same daughter that they never got back, since she had changed so drastically over the years. And to her little sister, she felt like a stranger that suddenly appeared who was apparently an older sister.

In the years since the reunion, Blue had actually spent a lot of time wandering around the various regions for the sole purpose of giving her family some time away from her. But that was not something she could continue. Every time she left on a trip, her parents had given her spending money. And Blue felt like she was just wasting their money while only causing discomfort to everyone.

So she couldn’t stay with her new family, but couldn’t continuously leave on a journey either. The solution was straight forward. She would leave her new family and live on her own, as she had for so many years. Even if it meant that she’d have to live in some run down shack of a secret base that she had built with Silver so many years ago.

It was probably better to leave on happy terms than sticking around until something went horribly wrong. Given the drastically different personalities, it was likely that eventually, Blue would get into a huge argument with her new sister, and many hurtful things would be said. It was best to leave before that happened.

With her bag strapped over her shoulders, Blue went downstairs to say goodbye to her family.

Both of her parents and their new daughter were already seated in the living room, talking and laughing. The moment Blue entered the living room, everyone suddenly fell silent.

Blue’s eyes twitched a little at this reaction. … For some reason, this always happened. Every time her family was engaged in a conversation and she appeared, the conversation ended awkwardly, as if it was something that she must not hear. … Another reason she had to leave.

“Mom, daddy…” Blue began, forcing herself to remain strong. “… I have to tell you something.”

…

Pallet Town…

…

Red yawned as he remained lying down on the couch. … He felt so damn bored. He wanted to train or battle with someone, but no one was available that was strong enough for him. The only person strong enough had gone over to Kalos to meet with that region’s champion.

There was only one other Dex Holder within Pallet Town, and that was Crystal. And the girl didn’t really battle. … And she was working right now, so dragging her away for training or battle was not going to happen.

Yellow was in Viridian Forest, but she’s nowhere near strong enough. The next nearest Dex Holder was Gold in New Bark Town (and Silver too, apparently), but Red had been training with him and only him for a while now.

It was a shame that Platinum was going to visit him _next week_. Her visit would not alleviate his boredom _right now_.

Red took out his Pokégear, looking at the list of contacts. Maybe Blue could help out? She was certainly capable in battling, though she may not particularly care much about it. But he doubted that she’d come all the way to Pallet Town just to train. Maybe a friendly hang-out then?

Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen her in a long while. She lived too far away for frequent visits, but not far enough to warrant a multiple-day visit. Maybe he could convince her to move somewhere closer. Although… Blue was now living with her parents after being separated so long. She might not want to move out.

And speaking of Blue, her birthday was coming up, wasn’t it? Red looked over at the calendar. As always, he had forgotten to mark everyone’s birthdays on the calendar. And now he forgot most everyone’s birthdays. And he couldn’t _ask_ Blue about her birthday.

Red slowly got up to his feet. He was sure that Crystal would know when exactly Blue’s birthday would be, so he was going to ask her.

Within a few minutes, he arrived at Prof. Oak’s lab, where Crystal was working. As usual, there were hardly any people inside. With the professor gone to Goldenrod to record a supposedly-live radio show, there was probably only Crystal left.

“Hello? Anyone here?” Red called out.

“Hi, Red,” came a cheerful female voice from somewhere deeper in the lab.

Red followed the voice and soon came across one of the research rooms. He knocked on the door for courtesy before opening it, but didn’t enter the room. He spotted Crystal writing something on a notebook while observing something on the table.

“Hey, Crys,” Red said.

Crystal turned to face her senior and gave him a bright smile. “Hi. Were you looking for someone?”

“Eh, I have a question I’d like to ask,” Red answered.

“Sure. But… what are you doing out there? Come inside,” Crystal said, noticing the fact that her senior was still outside the room.

Red chuckled. “Well… the last time I was in that room over 10 years ago, I accidentally released every Pokémon, and Professor Oak and I had a hell of a time trying to get them all back. … Ever since then, I’ve been permanently banned from going in there.”

Crystal smiled. “I’m sure that Professor Oak wouldn’t mind now if you came in, but… rules are rules, I guess.” She set everything down on the table before leaving the room to talk to Red face to face. She straightened out her lab coat as she stood in front of him. “Okay then, what question did you want to ask?”

Red rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m pretty sure that Blue’s birthday is coming up soon, but I don’t know when it is exactly. And I don’t think I can ask her that question. So would you happen to know?”

Crystal lightly tilted her head as she thought for a second. “Hmm… I think Blue’s birthday was right after Emerald’s, and Emerald’s birthday is May 31.”

“That’s great,” Red said. “It gives just enough time to prepare for her birthday. I haven’t seen her in a while, so it’s the best time to catch up.”

“Great idea,” Crystal said with a nod. “I’m sure she’d be really happy.”

…

Few hours later, classified location, Kanto…

…

Blue looked up from her sketchbook when her Pokégear began to ring. Were her parents calling? Were they calling to try to convince her to return home? Or just to check whether she was all set by herself? She checked the Pokégear and noticed that it was Red calling, not her parents. Blue momentarily hesitated, as this wasn’t the best time. But she couldn’t ignore his call and reluctantly answered.

“Hello?”

“Hey Blue, it’s Red,” Red said.

“Hi, Red,” Blue said, trying to sound cheerful.

“So your birthday is coming up, and I wanted to ask. Would you want a big party, or a small one?”

Blue blinked a few times. “Birth…day?”

“Yeah. Your birthday is June 1, right?” Red asked. “It’s just a few days away, and I wanted to know ahead of time.”

Blue suddenly felt a sheepish smile forming on her lips. “… You don’t have to do that, Red.”

“Of course I do. It’s been a long while since we last saw each other, and what better time to hang out and catch up than your birthday?”

Blue lowered her head and smiled as she felt… warmth all over her body. “… Thanks, Red. I really appreciate that.”

“So, would you like a small party, or a big one?” Red asked again.

“Keep it small, please. Just a few people.”

“Will do. So I’ll see you at my place on your birthday at… noon.”

“Okay. I’ll see you then.” Blue soon hung up and stared at the Pokégear for a while, feeling… happy. “Oh, Red…”

She put away her Pokégear and tried to focus on her sketchbook again. But her thoughts were focused on Red, and she couldn’t concentrate on drawing. With a content sigh, she put away her sketchbook as well and looked at her Ditto that was sliming around.

“Let’s go on a walk, Ditty. It’s too good of a day to waste indoors.”

…

3 days later, June 1, Pallet Town…

…

Blue slowly descended onto Pallet Town at the promised time. The Ditto-Jigglypuff gently landed, allowing Blue to hop off and return the Pokémon back into its ball.

Blue took a brief moment to take a deep breath. The air of Pallet Town was always so calm and soothing. Maybe that was because her subconscious longed for Pallet Town ever since she had been kidnapped.

Upon arriving at Red’s house, she straightened out her clothes and her hair before knocking on the door. Red answered pretty quickly.

“Hey, you’re here!” he said with a bright smile. “Welcome!”

“Thanks, Red,” Blue said with a smile of her own.

“Now that you’re here, we can begin. Come on in.”

There were four other Dex Holders in the house: Yellow, Gold, Silver, and Crystal. Red hadn’t invited the other Dex Holders since they were all living quite far away, and Blue had wanted a small party.

“Long time no see, everyone,” Blue said to everyone. “Well, except Silver, anyways. How’s your _new home_ , Silver?”

“Real good,” Silver said. “Lots of good food, entertainment, and comfort.”

“In _unrelated_ news,” Gold said from behind. “My refrigerator has seen an 85% drop in food storage. For _some reason_ , whenever there are some leftovers in any meal, they’re magically consumed by _someone_ within the hour! It’s as if Dia is secretly living in my house.”

Silver let out a cough. “… It’s good food.”

“Gold, you should be nice to your new housemate,” Blue said. “This is the first time Silver gets to live in an actual house with 3 proper meals per day.”

“I know,” Gold grumbled. “At least he helps around in the house. Having an extra set of hands for various house chores is nice.”

“But Gold, what are you doing here?” Blue asked. “I wouldn’t have thought that you’d come to my birthday party.”

“I told him to come,” Crystal said. “I thought it’d be rude to invite Silver over but not Gold since they’re living in the same house. And I figured that we’d need an extra set of hands with the party preparation and all.”

“And he’s actually helpful?” Blue asked.

“Yes,” Crystal said with a smile. “We have a… deal going on. He has to be on good behavior. And part of that means helping out when a senior has a birthday party.”

“Well, thanks, Gold,” Blue said with a nod.

Gold simply gave her an exaggerated bow before moving on to resume setting up the dinner table.

“All right, Blue,” Red said. “It’s your birthday, so just sit down, relax, and enjoy.”

“Sure thing.”

…

Several hours later…

…

Blue watched as Gold and Silver left for New Bark Town. They were the last to leave, which officially ended the birthday party. Blue waved at Silver before she focused her attention to the setting sun.

The birthday party has been very enjoyable. The food was very good, and she found it surprising that Gold and Crystal could cook so well. She doubted that Gold could cook so well. But she also doubted that Crystal could do so as well, given how she worked all the time and never had the time to practice cooking.

After the meal, everyone ate the cake that Red had bought while playing a board game that Silver brought… from Gold’s house. And Blue hasn’t had this much fun in _years_ , maybe for the first time ever. She always knew that she felt… lonely, so just spending time with others was just enjoyable.

“Did you have fun?” Red asked once Gold and Silver were out of sight range.

“Sure did,” Blue said with a happy smile. “Thank you so much.”

“We should do this more often,” Red said. “But you live too far away for a frequent hangout, you know? The Sevii Islands are just way too far away from Kanto mainland.”

“Oh, I don’t live there anym-” Blue quickly held her tongue, as she didn’t want anyone to know about her leaving her parents’ home. But it was too late, and she knew it.

“What? Did you move out of your parents’ place? Why?” Red asked, sounding concerned.

Blue let out a sigh. “… Damn it…”

“Blue? Why did you move out of your parents’ house? I thought you’d like living with them.”

Blue forced herself to smile. “I… didn’t feel at home there. So I moved out.” Red was still looking at her, waiting for the proper explanation, and Blue couldn’t resist for long. “… I felt like I was intruding. My parents have another daughter. She’s basically a replacement for me. And that little family has lived without me for 12 years. And all of a sudden, I have to live with them. … Things weren’t going to work out. Hell, I spent most of my time in the past few years traveling to other regions, giving my new family some time to themselves. At this rate, we’d only drift further apart, so I… left. That way, we’d have separated while we’re still on good terms.”

Red slowly nodded. “If that’s what you felt was the best choice, then I won’t question you. But I’m worried about you. Where are you living now?”

“I’m back to living where I have before I went to live with my parents,” Blue answered.

Red frowned a bit. “Wait. You said to Gold that this was the first time that Silver actually lived in a house, eating 3 proper meals per day. But he was living with you the whole time before you moved into your parents’ place. So that means that you are now back to living in a place that’s _not_ an actual house, and you are now once again _not_ eating 3 proper meals per day.”

Blue’s eyes drifted to the side as she thought for a second. “… I said that, didn’t I?” she muttered with a bittersweet smile. “Crap…”

“That won’t do,” Red said as he shook his head. “Blue, I can’t let you go back to living like _that_. No, no, no. Why don’t you come live with me, then?”

Blue blinked a few times, taken aback by the sudden offer. “Wh – What?”

“You saw how big the house was during the party,” Red said. “So you know that there’s plenty of space. It’s a bit too big for one person. And while I don’t know about eating 3 proper meals per day since I’m not that good at making food, but I can guarantee you a proper house to live in. What do you say?”

“Are… are you sure?”

“Why not? You obviously need a _real_ place to live, and I have plenty of space here, so I don’t mind.”

Blue looked into his warm red eyes for a while before she lowered her head and smiled. “… Okay… I’ll accept. Thank you.”

“Great!” Red said happily. He extended a hand. “Welcome to my house! Or should I say, _our_ house!”

Blue sheepishly accepted his hand and shook it. “I still have to go back to my place and get my stuff, so… I’ll be back.”

“All right. I’ll be waiting.”

Blue sent out her Ditto which morphed into a Jigglypuff and rapidly inflated itself. Blue gently hopped on and waved at Red as she steadily floated towards the sky. Red watched her leave before going back into his house to clean up the mess made by the party.

The sun had completely set by the time Blue returned. Red had finished cleaning up by this time, and had even taken a shower so that he could sleep.

“The bathroom is upstairs in the bedroom,” Red said as Blue temporarily put her belongings in the corner of the living room. “So take a shower and sleep on the bed.”

“Wait, what? Then where are you going to sleep?” Blue asked in surprise.

“Down here, of course,” Red answered. “I’ve slept on the couch before. It can be surprisingly comfortable.”

“Come on, Red. It’s already much for you to let me live in your house, but it’s too much for me to… kick the owner out of his own bed.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Red said with a smile. “Besides, I can’t be in the bedroom when you’re taking a shower. Again, the bathroom is connected to the bedroom, so it’s best for me to be down here while you’re drying off for the night. And I’m really tired right now, so I can’t really wait for you to finish either. So don’t worry about it, take a nice long shower and just sleep on the bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”

And without waiting for a response, Red plopped onto the couch, preparing to sleep. Blue reluctantly headed upstairs to take a shower. Almost an hour later, she had finished with her shower and finished drying off completely. She quickly got dressed for the night and headed downstairs to check up on Red. Halfway down the stairs, she could hear his snoring. Since he was sleeping so soundly, she chose to leave him be and headed back upstairs to sleep on the bed.

But unfortunately, she couldn’t sleep; not while knowing that Red was sleeping on a couch because of her. The guilt was too much. Even though Red had volunteered, he obviously wouldn’t have done so if she wasn’t going to live with him. And… was this going to happen every day? Knowing Red, he’d offer the bed to her and sleep on the couch every day. And that was definitely too much. Blue refused to be insensitive and let the homeowner sleep on the couch every day.

She soon got off of the bed and quietly made her way downstairs again. She can’t sleep if Red was going to sleep downstairs on the couch. But Red wouldn’t allow her to sleep on the couch while he took the bed. So there was only one logical solution.

Blue reached the living room and spotted Red sleeping lightly on the couch, no longer snoring. She lightly shook him by the shoulder.

“Red, wake up.”

Red mumbled a bit before he woke up and looked up at her. “Huh? … Oh, hey, Blue. What is it?”

“… Red, I can’t sleep,” Blue said as she crouched to meet his eye level. “Not while you’re down here, sleeping on a couch. You look quite uncomfortable.”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Red said, but Blue wouldn’t let him.

“Look, I can’t sleep like this. No. And I know that you won’t let me sleep on the couch or the floor. So the only solution is for you to sleep on the bed as well. It’s big enough for us to share without difficulties.”

“What?”

“It’s the best solution. I can’t sleep on the bed while you’re down here. You won’t sleep on the bed if I’m down here. And both of us sleeping down here and leaving the bed unoccupied is just silly. So the best solution is for us to share the bed.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Just come upstairs, Red.”

Blue didn’t wait for a response and headed upstairs first. She got onto the bed and made sure to stay on her half of the bed, giving Red ample space. Red showed up a few minutes later, visibly hesitating. Blue closed her eyes, feeling her guilt being alleviated. She smiled as she felt the bed moving from Red lying down on the other half of the bed.

“Sorry, Blue,” Red said as he settled down. “And good night.”

“Thanks, Red,” Blue said in response. “And good night.”

…

Next morning…

…

Blue slowly woke up from her sleep. She had such a good sleep for the first time in… years. Even now, she felt so comfortable, she didn’t want to get off the bed, ever. She felt so warm and… … Wait a minute…

She suddenly remembered that she was sleeping on Red’s bed, and… Red was sleeping on the same bed as well. Blue quickly sat up and glanced around. She found him sleeping peacefully on the bed right behind her, and… it appeared that she had been using his chest as a pillow.

Blue slowly smiled as she watched his peaceful expression, as he lightly snored. He looked so… adorable. For a while, she just stared at his face as a lot of thoughts flooded her mind. She recalled how she felt when she left her parents’ house, how lonely she felt, and how depressed she was. But one call from Red had changed all that when he asked her about her birthday party.

The birthday party was so amazing, she never had so much fun before. And just before she could return to her dark life, Red had offered her a place to live. Just like he did when she first saw him, he was once again unknowingly helping her escape her dark life and finally attaining happiness.

She owed him so much, that it was impossible for her to repay him for everything. And she knew that Red would continue to offer her everything. As always, he was the key in her life to happiness. And she suddenly couldn’t resist anymore.

Blue slowly crawled onto the bed, crawling right over Red until she reached his face. She glanced down to make sure that her knees weren’t going to make contact with him, as she really didn’t want to wake him up right now. Once she was satisfied, she leaned towards his face, being careful to avoid making a sound. She lowered her head to give him a kiss on the cheek, but stopped just before her lips made contact.

‘ _… No… I can’t do this…_ ’ she thought as she remained frozen in place. ‘ _… He deserves the absolute best… and that is definitely not me. … He’s always so happy and cheerful. I can’t let someone like me darken his life. … Does he even like me in that way?_ ’ Blue closed her eyes and slowly backed away. Once she got off of the bed entirely, she took a few steps back to watch Red from a “safe” distance. ‘ _… He doesn’t like me the way I like him. And even if he does… I’m not good enough for him. … Yellow likes him too. I can’t do anything to Red fully knowing that._ ’ She let out a quiet sigh. ‘ _I can’t let him know, ever. I have to keep everything under control. … I’ll just make breakfast now. I know that Red can’t really cook well, so I can repay a bit of my debts by making good food for him._ ’

Blue looked at Red’s peaceful sleeping face for another few seconds before heading downstairs. It would be difficult for her to keep everything hidden when she was now living in the same house as him, and even sharing the bed at night. But this was too important for her emotions to ruin it. There was a delicate balance here. She had to use this opportunity to finally be happy. But at the same time, she had to keep her own feelings down so that she wouldn’t negatively impact Red.


	2. Prologue - Sinnoh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like all other stories of mine, Legacy assumes that Platinum returned the three Pokemon she borrowed from the Sinnoh Gym Leaders.

Prologue – Sinnoh:

June 6, Twinleaf Town, Sinnoh, 8 pm…

“Thank you for inviting me to your birthday party,” Platinum said with a bright smile as she stood outside of Pearl’s house. “I had a wonderful time.”

“Thanks for coming, Miss Lady,” Pearl said with a smile as well.

“Sorry we had to go for a simple party,” Diamond said. “But given our current situation, we couldn’t really go for a fancy event.”

“Yeah, I know,” Pearl said.

“Current situation?” Platinum asked. “What do you mean?”

“Our resident chef Dia here is going to attend a few culinary classes held by some of the most famous chefs in Sinnoh,” Pearl explained. “And the classes begin in just a few days, so there’s not enough time for a big birthday event in some remote location.”

“And Pearl here is going off to spend time with his dad in the Battle Frontier,” Diamond said as well. “And he’s leaving tomorrow, so again, no time for a party somewhere far away from Twinleaf.”

Platinum glanced back and forth between both of her friends. “Both of you are busy this week?”

“Yeah,” Diamond said. “Why?”

Platinum slightly lowered her head. “I promised senior Red that I would visit him. I was supposed to visit him last week, but I had to stay here in Sinnoh for your birthday, Pearl. And now that it is over, I had hoped that I could go to Kanto with both of you.”

“Oh. I’d really love to go with you, Lady, but unfortunately, these culinary classes are a special event that won’t occur again, so I can’t afford to miss it.”

“And I’m going to see my dad because it’s my birthday, so I can’t delay it either,” Pearl said. “… This is quite the inconvenient timing, huh?”

Platinum let out a short sigh. “Oh well. It cannot be helped. Enjoy your time with your family, Pearl. And Diamond, do try your best at the culinary classes. I look forward to seeing how much you improved.” She smiled again and tilted her head a bit. “Though I do believe that you are a perfect chef as is.”

“There’s always room for improvement,” Diamond said.

“All right then, I have to pack my stuff for the trip to the Battle Frontier,” Pearl said. “I’ll see you two later.”

Diamond and Platinum nodded and waved at their friend as he waved back and closed the door. Platinum soon headed towards the bus stop for a ride to Sandgem Town and Diamond accompanied her.

“I’m sorry if I disappointed you, Lady,” he said apologetically.

“Oh, no, it is okay,” Platinum said quickly. “This is very important to you and I understand perfectly. We can always go to Kanto together at another time. Senior Red’s birthday is in two months, so we can go to Kanto together then.”

“That’d be great.”

Soon, the two Sinnoh Dex Holders arrived at the bus stop and the bus heading to Sandgem Town came to a stop.

“Have fun and be careful in your trip to Kanto, Lady,” Diamond said with a wave as Platinum boarded the bus. “I’ll see you when you return.”

Platinum smiled brightly and waved at Diamond as the bus door closed. She took her seat by the windows and resumed waving at Diamond as the bus started to move once more. Once he was out of sight, she let out a short sigh. She had really wanted to go with him to Kanto, and even though she perfectly understood his reasons, she couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed.

…

3 days later, June 9, Route 1, Kanto, 1 pm…

…

Platinum tapped her Rapidash to signal a stop. The Rapidash obeyed and came to a stop just as it entered the boundaries of Pallet Town. Platinum let go of the luggage bag she was dragging along and hopped off of her Pokémon. Now that she was in Pallet Town, she intended to enjoy a nice peaceful walk towards Red’s house while giving her Rapidash a well deserved rest.

“Thank you,” she said with a smile as she gently embraced the Rapidash. She then returned it to its ball and put it back in her bag. With a deep breath, she grabbed her luggage bag and proceeded to walk towards Red’s house.

She had been to Red’s house a few times in the past, so she remembered exactly where it was. It was also pretty difficult to _not_ remember its exact whereabouts since Pallet Town wasn’t that big.

As she approached Red’s house, she spotted someone crouching in Red’s backyard. Platinum frowned as she never recalled Red ever being outside in the backyard. She quickened her pace and reached for her Empoleon’s Pokéball in case of there being some foul play. But as she rapidly approached, she recognized the suspicious person in the backyard, and she stopped in her tracks.

“Senior Blue?”

Platinum tilted her head, wondering what exactly the Kanto Dex Holder was doing. But she figured that nothing bad would happen, so she resumed walking towards her. Blue seemed to have heard her coming, as she rose to her feet and turned around.

“Oh, hi, Platinum,” she said with a bright smile. “Long time no see.”

Platinum gave her a polite bow. “Hello, senior. It is wonderful to see you again.” She made a little attempt to glance past Blue to see what she had been doing. “Are you visiting senior Red as well?”

“Huh? Well… not really,” Blue answered. “… I live here now.”

Platinum blinked a few times as she tried to process the information. “I was under the belief that you were living with your long lost parents.”

Blue’s expression darkened slightly. “I was, but… things weren’t working out and I moved out. I had nowhere else to go, and Red offered me to live with him.”

“Oh. I am so sorry, senior,” Platinum said, feeling sympathy for bringing up a painful memory.

Blue smiled brightly once more. “But it’s okay! I really like it living here. I haven’t been this comfortable and happy in years!”

Platinum lightened her expression once more. “Oh. In that case… congratulations, senior!”

“Thanks.” Blue took a step to the side so Platinum could see what was behind her. “Now, if you were wondering what exactly I was doing out here, crouching in the backyard… it’s this.”

Platinum looked at what was hidden behind her senior and saw a small berry tree growing. “Oh, a berry tree?”

“Yep. It’s something I’m planting here and there for fun, and for some free berry snacks,” Blue said. “At times like this when Red isn’t home, I have nothing to do. So to kill some time, I’ve planted a few berries here and there. They’re all Pecha Berries, though, because they’re the tastiest and they grow quickly.” She signaled Platinum to follow and began to walk towards the front door of Red’s house. “So, what brings you all the way here?”

“Senior Red wanted me to visit him last week, but I was unable because Pearl’s birthday was coming up. And now that the birthday had passed, I have come as he wished. Unfortunately, both Diamond and Pearl were busy so they are not with me.”

“Ah, so a friendly hangout, huh? That’s nice. Enjoy your stay here. It’s really nice and peaceful. Red will be back in a bit, so you won’t have to wait that long to see him. He’s just gone over to Celadon City to pick up something from the department store.” Blue glanced at the big luggage that Platinum was dragging behind her. “So… in the meantime, I guess you can unpack. Seems like you brought quite a lot of stuff with you.”

“Most of these are gifts from Sinnoh,” Platinum explained.

“Oh? … Got any for me?”

“Of course, senior. I will gladly show you.”

…

Next day, June 10, 12 pm…

…

“Very good, Platinum,” Red said as he gave his junior a light applause. “You’re certainly getting more and more used to using your Mega Lopunny.”

Platinum returned her Pokémon and gave her senior a polite bow. “Thank you, senior. I have been practicing with Lopunny for quite some time now. It has gotten used to its strength and speed increase and can manage itself much more effectively in battle.”

Blue walked over and gave both Red and Platinum a cup of ice water. “I noticed that you still only have 3 Pokémon in your team, Platinum. That means you’re effectively at only half strength in a battle. Have you considered filling up your team?”

“I have, but I do not have much opportunity to find wild Pokémon,” Platinum answered. “But…”

“In cases like this, not only does the trainer have to pick the Pokémon, but the Pokémon also has to pick you,” Red said. “So… going out there and catching a random Pidgey or Rattata won’t work at all. … Or in your case, a random Bidoof or Starly.”

Blue tilted her head as she thought about Platinum with a Bibarel or a Staraptor. “… And I don’t think either Pokémon will suit you.” She smiled as she glanced over at Red. “But I think we can help you with at least one Pokémon.”

“You can?” Platinum asked in surprise.

Red saw Blue’s gaze and soon nodded. “Yeah. See, just a few days ago, my Vee and Blue’s Ditto got together and had an egg. And I’m thinking that it’d be best if you took care of it for us.”

“An egg?”

“Yeah. It’ll need someone to take good care of it. Someone with experience in hatching, preferably. And while we could ask Gold to do it since that’s his job and all, but… given his _ability_ to get the hatched Pokémon to take after his own personality, we figured that it’d be best if the Eevee was given to someone else,” Red said.

“You once told us that you took care of a Manaphy egg,” Blue said. “And you even took care of the hatched Phione. So we figured that you’d be the best person to take care of the Eevee egg.”

“And once it hatches, I’m sure it’ll become a great addition to your team,” Red said.

“So Platinum, could you take care of this Eevee egg for us? And can you promise to give it the care and affection it needs?” Blue asked, studying her junior’s expression.

“Oh, senior! I – I would be delighted!” Platinum exclaimed happily, clasping her hands in front of her. “Thank you so much!”

“Great,” Red said with a smile. “Come on in, and I’ll give you that egg.”

Platinum quickly followed Red as he headed back inside his house. He led her upstairs to his room, and on a desk was an Eevee egg inside a portable incubator canister. Red gently lifted the canister and looked at the egg inside for a moment before he handed it to Platinum.

The heiress excitedly but carefully received the canister with both hands, as if she was handling something insanely fragile. “Thank you so much, senior,” she said, unable to contain her joy. “I promise to take good care of it and live up to your trust in me.”

“I’m sure you’ll do well, kid,” Blue said with a smile.

“Oh, I must show everyone,” Platinum said as she practically hugged the incubator canister. “May I use the picture phone here?”

“Go right ahead,” Red said. “It’s in the living room.”

“Thank you.” With a quick bow, the girl excitedly left to make a series of calls to Sinnoh.

“Giving the egg to Platinum was a really good choice,” Red said as he looked over at Blue.

“I didn’t think she’d be this happy,” Blue said. “But it’s great to see her like this. And knowing her, she’ll definitely take care of that egg and the eventual Eevee much better than anyone else. And it’d certainly be better than having a Gold-natured baby Eevee that gambles with cards and plays billiards. We don’t want to have a repeat of his Togepi and Pichu. Even though he may be behaving pretty well lately… he’s still Gold.”

Meanwhile…

“Gold! Stop sneezing on me!” Crystal said angrily as she stood up from her seat. “I told you to watch your manners!”

“But… but…” Gold stammered out, feeling the dread of yet another failure. “This isn’t my fault!”

Crystal shook her head. “Your behavior might be improving, but you still have no manners. So close, yet so far. Try again, Gold.” With a huff of disgust, she wiped away the spittle splattered on her face with a napkin and stormed out of the restaurant. But once she turned around, she let out a quiet sigh of relief and smiled.

“Argh!” Gold groaned as he smacked a hand over his face. “… And so the cycle begins again! This… _infinite_ cycle has to come to an end some day!”

…

Several days later, June 16, New Bark Town, Johto, 1 pm…

…

Platinum gently held the egg canister with one arm as she knocked on the door to Gold’s house. Now that she had to take good care of the Eevee egg, Platinum was determined to give it the best damn care possible. And to do that, she had to know what to do with it, by asking for help with those who were far more experienced in dealing with eggs.

The first thing that came to mind was the daycare center in Solaceon Town of Sinnoh, since that was where she got to take care of the hatched Phione with Diamond and Pearl. But the daycare couple had talked about Gold, so the heiress figured that asking her senior would be quite beneficial as well. Although Red and Blue were a bit _concerned_ about Gold’s ability to pass his own personality traits onto the hatched Pokémon, if Platinum just got advice from Gold instead of letting him hatch it, surely there will be no problems?

Before long, Gold opened the front door and momentarily looked surprised to see her.

“Hey, it’s been a while,” he said eventually. “… What brings you all the way out here in Johto? … And is that an egg?”

Platinum slightly bowed while holding the egg canister with both hands once more. “Hello, senior. I have been staying at senior Red’s house recently and he has given me the offspring between his Espeon and senior Blue’s Ditto. I have come here today to seek advice from you, senior, as you are far more experienced in hatching eggs than I am. Can you please teach me?”

“An Eevee egg, huh?” Gold said as he lowered himself to look at the egg more closely. “Looking good so far. All right, then. Come on in.”

Platinum followed Gold as he led her inside his house. And the moment she stepped inside, she could hear loud noises coming from somewhere deeper in the house, almost like… a kid’s television show.

“What is that noise?”

Gold let out a sigh. “A certain freeloader is watching his damn favorite robot show. And I can’t do anything about this freeloader because… if I do, senior Blue will murder me.” He took a deep breath as he prepared to shout. “Hey Silver! Lower the volume, would you?!” He lightly shook his head as the television volume was _increased_. “I have a job to do here!” he yelled again, but nothing happened. “Don’t make me tell Crys that you’re interfering!” He looked over at Platinum. “You’ll be my witness, right?”

“Witness?”

“Yeah. I mean, senior Red gave you an egg to look after, so you came to me for some advice. And I was definitely willing to help out, but a certain freeloader’s overly loud television show was too distracting for me to properly help you. Crys will only believe me if you’re the witness.”

Platinum understood. She cleared her throat and prepared to _talk_ over the loud noises. “Yes of course, senior! I will gladly tell senior Crystal about this!”

As expected, Silver rapidly lowered the volume of the television to acceptable levels. Gold smiled in triumph and gave Platinum a thumbs-up before resuming leading her towards the basement.

“So, what type of advice do you need?” Gold asked as he sat on the couch in the basement.

Platinum sat next to him and looked at the egg. “I would like to know what I should be doing in order to give this egg the optimal hatching conditions.”

Gold nodded. “Okay. Now, the first thing you should know is that you shouldn’t keep the egg in that canister. It’s useful for when you’re on the move, as the canister will prevent that egg from shaking too much. But when you’re at home, you should let the egg out and hold it yourself. It’ll hatch faster that way. And you can just put it back in the canister when you’re done with it.”

Platinum set the canister on the table in front of her and took out a small notebook from her bag. She wrote down what Gold just said onto the page.

“The important thing here is touch. You want to hold that egg yourself as much as possible,” Gold continued once Platinum finished writing. “The objective here is to get the Pokémon inside to subconsciously get used to your touch. That way, the moment it hatches, it won’t bite you in fright or run away. But just remember to be careful when you’re holding the egg yourself. It’s tougher than you’d think, but not at the same time. So just be careful, and make sure not to shake it too much.”

“I will be careful, senior,” Platinum said as she finished writing once more.

“Good. The next thing… is for you to talk to it often. Obviously, you can’t have a conversation with it or anything, but you should still talk to it often. The objective here is to get the Pokémon to get used to hearing your voice. It may be awkward at first, talking to an egg. But do it enough, and you’ll get used to it.” He glanced at the egg canister. “Now obviously, the Pokémon in the egg won’t hear you if it’s in there. So do remember to let it out often.”

“I understand.”

“And once the Pokémon inside is accustomed to you, befriending it will take no time at all. And if you spend enough time with it before it hatches, it’ll definitely love you, and it’ll evolve into Espeon or Umbreon in no time. … Say, what do you want it to evolve into, anyways?”

“I am not sure,” Platinum answered honestly. “I have not thought about it. But since senior Red has an Espeon and Y has a Sylveon, I would prefer if this Eevee evolved into something else.”

Gold searched through his Pokédex for the data on Eevee. “Good thing it has like 9 million evolutions. I’m sure you can find an evolution form that you like that no other Dex Holder has.” He put his Pokédex away and looked at Platinum once more. “Oh, and another thing you should know…”

A couple of hours later, Platinum finished with her “learning session” with Gold. She found him to be surprisingly helpful, and he had taught her quite a lot about egg handling without any sort of tasteless jokes. The heiress was aware that Gold and Crystal had some sort of a deal going on, and wondered if that was the cause of the huge behavior change.

“You know, I’d ask if you wanted to eat anything while you’re here,” Gold began as he watched Platinum send out her Rapidash just outside of his house. “But a certain freeloader has cleaned out the fridge again, so there’s nothing prepared left…”

Platinum simply smiled. “That is okay, senior. I appreciate your care.” She gave her senior a polite bow. “Thank you so much for your help, senior.”

“No problem. And hey, when you get back to Sinnoh, you should go talk to those daycare folks. They have a lot more experience than I do, so they might know something new.”

“I will. Thank you.” After another polite bow, she carefully hopped onto her Rapidash and headed towards Cherrygrove City. There, she would take the bus to Olivine City, where she would take the ferry to Sinnoh.

And after showing off the Eevee egg to Diamond and Pearl, she’d head to Solaceon Town to seek some more advice from the old daycare couple.

…

Several days later, June 23, Solaceon Town, Sinnoh, 8 am…

…

Platinum woke up from her sleep and stretched her limbs as she sat up. She rubbed her eyes a bit before putting her glasses on and looked at her Eevee egg that was in the canister on the table next to the bed.

“Good morning,” she said to the egg after taking it out of the canister. She gently held the egg close to her heart. “Did you get a nice sleep? Yes? Good.”

“I thought you were talking to me for a sec,” came a female voice from the bathroom of the hotel suite.

“Oh? You were awake already?” Platinum asked.

Y stepped out of the bathroom while fully dressed in her flight suit. A few days ago, Platinum heard from White that Y had been feeling quite down lately, and asked the Kalos Dex Holder to come to Sinnoh for a visit. Y had agreed and had arrived a couple of days ago. She looked quite depressed, so Platinum had decided to take her on a peaceful journey to Solaceon Town in hopes of cheering her up.

“Yeah. I felt like flying around for a bit, so I woke up early so I can get dressed,” Y answered.

“How are you feeling today?”

“Feeling okay,” Y answered, not sounding too truthful.

“I am sure a peaceful sightseeing flight would be very helpful,” Platinum suggested. “Mt. Coronet is nearby, and the route to the north of here has many steep hills and cliffs. You should fly around there.”

“Okay. Will do,” Y said.

“I will be at the daycare center in the northern end of the town. So if you need me for whatever reason, do not hesitate to come to me.”

“Thank you.”

Y soon left the hotel suite and Platinum let out a short sigh. She knew that Y was feeling down because one of her Pokémon had abandoned her recently and she was forced to release it. The only real way to cheer her up was to get a wild Pokémon to like her enough to voluntarily join her team. But Platinum had no idea how to do that, since she only had half of a team for years now. Although, Y now had half of a team herself, so perhaps the two girls could fill up their teams together.

Platinum gave the Eevee egg a soft kiss before putting it back in the incubator canister. Once she was sure that it was secure, she headed towards the bathroom to get ready for the day.

An hour later, Platinum arrived at the daycare center. She momentarily looked off to the north and spotted Y flying around in the distance. The Kalos Dex Holder wasn’t flying around too fast, indicating that she was taking time for some sightseeing as recommended. Platinum watched her junior for a few more seconds before heading inside the daycare center.

Another couple of hours later, Platinum had finished getting lessons and advices from the old daycare couple and set out to find Y. She no longer spotted her flying around in the distance, so she figured that Y had landed there for a break. Platinum hopped onto her Rapidash and with the egg canister held securely in her arms, she steadily headed up north.

She found Y in the northern half of Route 210, sitting on top of a steep cliff. Y saw the heiress approaching and pushed herself off of the cliff, entering freefall for a bit before using her flight suit to glide forward. Platinum stopped her Rapidash and watched as Y flew straight towards her, careened off to the side and did a spiral before landing perfectly on her feet.

“That was… dangerous,” Platinum said with a slight frown as Y fixed her hair while walking towards her.

“I do this all the time, so… it’s all in control,” Y said with a smile. She took out a Pokéball containing her Greninja and looked inside. “And in case things go wrong, I have Kerokero here to save me.” She put the Pokéball back in her pocket and looked at her senior. “So… is everything done?”

“Yes. And I have a new destination. The daycare couple told me that there is an island in the region of Alola that is famous for its usefulness in hatching eggs.” Platinum looked at the Eevee egg in the canister. “I intend to go there next. I wish the very best for this Eevee, even before it hatches.”

“So you’re literally giving that egg the best care money can get, huh?” Y asked. “Wow. No other Eevee in the _world_ would’ve had better care.”

“I want you to come with me,” Platinum said. “I still do not think that you are back to your normal self. Surely a trip to the vacation region of Alola would help?”

Y thought for a second before she nodded. “Okay. I’ll go with you. Thank you for the offer. But we should ask White to come too. She’ll need a nice vacation too. I don’t think it’s fair if I’m the only one that gets to follow you around in the vacation region.”

“Good idea,” Platinum said. “I suppose it would be more fun to be in a group.”

“Can you call her?”

Platinum took out her Pokégear and called White. The Unova Dex Holder answered almost immediately.

“Hello?” came White’s voice from the Pokégear, sounding a bit out of breath.

“Hello White,” Platinum said calmly.

“Oh, hi, Lady Platinum,” White said.

“Are you busy?” Platinum asked. “You sound out of breath.”

“Oh, no. I was just taking a break, and your call just really surprised me. So… what’s up?”

“I am going to the region of Alola with Y,” Platinum said. “And we wanted you to come with us. Do you think you can spare the time for a vacation trip to Alola?”

“Alola huh?” White muttered. “… That sounds really nice. … Who else is going?”

“Just us three,” Platinum said. “And maybe Moon if she is still in the region.”

“Hmm… okay, sure,” White said after a moment of thought. “That sounds really nice. Thank you for inviting me. So, where are we going to meet?”

“Y and I are above Solaceon Town in Sinnoh. We will be heading to Canalave City to take the ferry, and we will make a stop in Castelia City. So we will meet up there. It will likely be a week from now. I will call you when we depart from Canalave City.”

“Okay. If you let me know ahead of time, I can certainly make arrangements so I can leave on a vacation,” White said. “I could really use some R&R.”

“Wonderful. I will keep you upda-”

“Miss Platinum! Look out!” Y suddenly yelled.

Platinum looked up in alarm just as Y dived towards her, quickly pushing the heiress backwards. Platinum’s Rapidash quickly ran forward a bit in surprise as well, causing its trainer to fall off completely.

While falling, Platinum quickly pulled the egg canister close to her heart, and twisted her body so that she’d hit the ground instead of the canister. But before she hit the ground, there was a loud thud as something heavy hit the ground just a few feet away from her.

Platinum hit the ground and quickly tightened her grip on the Eevee egg canister, just as Y landed on top of her. Y had spread her limbs beforehand, so that her knees would hit the ground instead of her senior, and that her arms would stop her fall so that she didn’t land on the egg canister.

Y quickly looked behind her to see what exactly had hit the ground. All she had seen was a blob of grayish blue plummeting towards the ground. Platinum glanced past her junior’s flight suit wings and saw a very small figure in the dust cloud formed by the impact.

The dust soon settled and Platinum could see a wild Bagon pull its head out of the ground. The Bagon looked over at the two Dex Holders and let out what sounded like a very frustrated roar.

And without warning, the Bagon opened its mouth wide and shot at the two Dex Holders with Flamethrower…


	3. Prologue - Kalos

Prologue – Kalos:

June 16, Vaniville Town, Kalos, 12 pm…

“Stop!” Y yelled with her hand raised high, signaling her Pokémon to stop the training.

Her Pokémon stopped what they were doing and turned to look at her.

“Guys, what’s happening?” Y asked. “Our training sessions are becoming more and more… jumbled up. The teamwork is getting sloppy. Right now, this is _very_ far from being a well-oiled machine. Any thoughts, X?”

X crossed his arms as he observed each of Y’s Pokémon. “Everyone’s doing their best, except…”

“Solsol,” Y finished for him, as she had the same feeling as well. “Solsol hasn’t been cooperating with me lately. What’s wrong?”

The Absol simply looked off into the distance. Y stared at it for a bit before she moved around so that she was right in front of its face. The Absol looked off to the side.

“So we’re doing this again, are we?” Y asked with a sigh. “… Why? You’ve been like this for a while now. I thought I was getting you the wrong food so I looked that up. I then thought that this was a natural habit for Absols, so I looked that up too. I then wondered if I was making you uncomfortable and tried my absolute best to make sure that you’d be happy. And still nothing. I looked up your data on the Pokédex, but it’s not like there were any disasters that were happening in the vicinity to distract you.”

She crouched in front of her Absol again and tried to give it a gentle pet. But the Absol pulled back and shook away her attempts to pet it.

“Come on, Solsol,” Y said. “At least tell me what’s bothering you so much.”

The Absol didn’t even look at her as it continued to stare off into the distance.

“According to the Pokédex here,” X began, looking at Absol’s data. “Absol is a Pokémon that only approaches people when a disaster is about to happen. … I wonder if it only allowed itself to be caught by you because of what was happening at the time.”

“I thought that too, but if that was true, then Solsol would’ve tried to leave the moment the situation was resolved,” Y argued. A thought suddenly occurred and she looked stunned. “… Unless… it stuck around for a bit longer in case the disaster was prolonged?”

The Absol suddenly looked at her as if she had said something right for once. Y blinked a few times as she recalled the Absol’s behavior changes, and when the first change occurred.

“… So… all this time…” she began in disbelief. “… You only listened to me because you were concerned about another possible disaster? … And now that things are peaceful and there is no chance of a disaster, you want to… leave me? Is that it?”

The Absol looked into her eyes for a second before looking away into the distance again.

“… I’m sorry, Y,” X said solemnly.

“… That’s it, huh?” Y muttered, her voice shaking. “… All the time we spent together since then… our… _bond_ … all of that is meaningless to you?” She took a series of deep breaths to calm down a bit and then took out the Absol’s Pokéball. “… Solsol… or rather, _Absol_ , please just look at me,” she began, trying to prevent her voice from shaking any more.

“Y, what are you doing?” X asked, noticing something strange in Y’s expression.

The Absol finally turned to look at Y, or rather, the Pokéball that it was bound to.

“If… if all the time we spent together, our bond, and my affection towards you have all been meaningless to you,” Y said, her voice starting to quiver again. “… And if you truly want to abandon me and go back to where you were before… then push the button and hold it until you’re free. If that’s not true and you care about me in the slight-”

The Absol pushed the central button on the Pokéball with its paw before Y even finished her next sentence. The Pokéball emitted a light blue beam at the Absol as the releasing process finished. And the moment the process ended, it turned away and began to run without even casting a second glance at its former trainer.

X quickly took out one of his own Pokéballs, wanting to chase after the Absol and force it to return. But Y suddenly lowered her head and dropped the Pokéball in her hand, causing him to stop in worry.

Y looked at the dropped Pokéball, which lay opened on the ground. She stared at it in silence for a long while before she reached into her pocket and fished out a Mega Stone; the Absol’s Mega Stone. She dropped it next to the empty Pokéball and lowered her head once more.

“Y… I’m so sorry,” X said from the side. But Y didn’t respond and simply turned away. X looked at the dropped Mega Stone on the ground and noticed that there was a little wet mark on the ground. … Tear drop? X quickly looked up again and saw Y beginning to run towards her house. And before X could even start running after her, she had entered her house and locked the door behind her.

…

Next day, June 17, 11 am…

…

X looked from his windows for signs of Y. She had refused to answer his calls the previous day, and it seemed that she was going to skip out on her daily Sky Trainer training sessions. He looked down and saw Tierno, Trevor, and Shauna approaching his house.

“No good,” Tierno said once X opened the windows. “She won’t talk to us.”

“YP is being like… you,” Shauna said. “And given how we were never able to drag you out, I don’t think any of us would be able to drag her out of her room.”

“Talk about irony,” Tierno commented. “That Absol abandoning her must’ve really hurt her.”

“Surely there must be someone who can get Y to come out?” Trevor said. “X, do you have any ideas? You’re acquainted with the Pokédex Holders of other regions. Do you think any of them can convince Y to come out?”

X thought for a while as he recalled each Dex Holder and thought how close they were to Y. Soon, a certain Dex Holder came to mind, and he slowly nodded. “Yeah. I think I know who to call. And if I’m right, Y can’t possibly ignore her _orders_.” He frowned as he searched through his list of contacts. “But I don’t know her number…”

“That’s… not good. Do you know anyone who knows that Dex Holder?”

X soon found a _business card_ that he had been given at one point. … Customary for that Dex Holder, apparently.

“That I do. And I think this number will work,” X answer as he called the number provided on the business card.

Soon an automated response answered his call. “Thank you for calling BW Agency! If you know your party’s extension, you may dial it at any time…”

X dialed the proper extension number and waited as the call was being connected. Sure, this felt a bit dumb, being forced to call a Dex Holder’s _business number_ in another region in order to get the number of another Dex Holder in yet another region who could then call the Dex Holder that was living literally next door to come outside and talk, but… if it meant that Y would return to being her bright and cheerful self again…

…

Several days later, June 23, Route 210, Sinnoh, 12 pm…

…

“Miss Platinum! Look out!” Y yelled as she quickly lunged forward, pushing her senior out of harm’s way. She looked backwards and saw a wild Bagon pulling its head out of the ground once the dust settled.

The Bagon let out a seemingly frustrated roar and suddenly used Flamethrower at the two Dex Holders.

“Incoming!” Y yelled as she saw the Fire type attack. She rose a bit to jump out of the way, but then realized that Platinum was currently under her carrying her precious Eevee egg. If Y jumped out of the way, the heiress would be hit by the attack, and that was unacceptable. If the egg was damaged… that was a lot worse, as Platinum would _never_ forgive her. So instead, Y spread out her flight suit wings and tried to shield her senior from the attack as much as possible.

Y braced herself, but the attack never came. She looked behind her and realized that Platinum’s Rapidash had returned, and soaked up the Flamethrower with its Flash Fire ability.

Platinum hastily checked the status of her precious Eevee egg, afraid that the impact may have damaged it. “The egg is safe,” she said with a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Y, and Rapidash.”

“Lady Platinum?!” came White’s frantic voice from the Pokégear. “What’s happening? Are you okay?”

“Yes, I am okay,” Platinum responded calmly. “A wild Bagon has attacked. Nothing more. As I was saying, I will keep you updated.” She soon hung up and looked up at Y. “Prepare for battle.”

“Okay,” Y said as she signaled her Fletchinder to come closer. “But… why did this Bagon attack?” she asked as she reached for her Pokédex.

“Bagon has a perpetual wish for flight,” Platinum said as she rose to her feet. “It continuously jumps off of high cliffs in its attempts to fly and crashes head-first into the ground, which made its head rock hard. It is why it has the Rock Head ability. And this is my conjecture, but I surmise that this Bagon saw you flying and got upset. Here in Sinnoh, there are no Sky Trainers, so even the wild Pokémon are not accustomed to seeing people flying around. That may be the reason why it is attacking right now.”

Y checked her Pokédex and saw the exact same information displayed on the screen. She momentarily tilted her head, wondering how exactly her senior knew that information without even looking at her own Pokédex before she remembered who exactly the heiress was.

Y frowned a bit and took a few steps to the side, separating herself from her senior to test the conjecture. The Bagon was only looking at her, and it was clear that it wasn’t even paying attention to Platinum.

“Huh. It sure seems to be angry at me,” Y said. “… Okay then. Here goes. Fletchy, Flame Charge!”

The Fletchinder cloaked itself in flames and prepared to charge. But the wild Bagon suddenly shot a huge stream of water from its mouth, forcing the Fletchinder to abort its attack and fly up to dodge. The Bagon stomped around in frustration at the flight and shot another stream of water at the bird Pokémon.

“Hydro Pump?” Y muttered in surprise.

“It is uncommon, but not impossible,” Platinum said. “However, Bagon is not proficient at ranged attacks. That Hydro Pump currently lacks raw power. You should take advantage of it.”

“I got this,” Y said with a nod. “Double Team!”

The Fletchinder quickly flew around the Bagon, making illusory copies of itself to confuse the little Dragon Pokémon. The Bagon spun around for a bit, trying to find the real Fletchinder, before it began blasting every copy with Flamethrower. Y observed the Bagon’s firing rate and timed her attack accordingly.

“Now! Aerial Ace!”

The Fletchinder suddenly appeared in front of the Bagon and rammed into it at incredibly high speed just as the little Dragon Pokémon was about to inhale for another Flamethrower. The impact sent the Bagon rolling backwards, until it came to a sudden abrupt halt in the form of the cliff wall.

“Ooh… that must’ve hurt,” Y said with a wince. She jogged towards the Bagon, afraid that she may have dealt too much damage.

The Bagon sat up and shook away the effects of the Aerial Ace. It looked more disheartened than injured.

“It does not appear to be hurt,” Platinum said as she walked towards the Bagon as well. “But it probably will not attack any further.”

“That’s good,” Y said. She gave her Fletchinder a gentle pat on the head and was about to turn away when she noticed the expression on the Bagon’s face. The Bagon let out a whimper as it looked down at the ground. “Aww… you really want to fly, don’t you?” she asked as she crouched in front of it. “Maybe I can help you out.”

The Bagon perked up and looked at her excitedly. Y smiled as she extended a hand towards the Bagon. The little Dragon Pokémon hopped up to its feet and ran towards her.

“All right then,” Y said as she gave the Bagon a gentle pet. “Fletchy, let’s give this little guy a ride, huh?”

The Fletchinder nodded and grabbed onto the little Bagon with its talons. Once the Bagon was securely in its grip, the Fletchinder began to fly upwards, taking it slowly at first. The Bagon let out a happy roar and it began to flap its arms to mimic the Fletchinder’s wings.

“Aww, isn’t that cute?” Y said as she watched her Fletchinder flying in circles for the Bagon, occasionally soaring into the sky and dipping low towards the ground for different experiences.

“Yes. And it is very admirable of you for letting the Bagon have its wish,” Platinum said.

“Thank you. The little guy just looked so sad, you know?”

“I suppose being defeated by a Flying type Pokémon was quite upsetting,” Platinum said. “But now, at least it will be-” She suddenly felt something soft landing on her head and quickly looked up in surprise. She felt her hat being pulled off and caught a glimpse of something blue and white that was now flying away. “Ah! My hat!”

Y quickly spun around in surprise and spotted the blue and white Pokémon flying away, with Platinum’s undoubtedly super expensive hat. “Ah! Your million PKD hat! I’ll get it back for you!”

Her Fletchinder flew down and assisted her in taking off before beginning to chase the hat thief, with the Bagon still holding on for the ride.

Platinum tilted her head as she watched her junior fly off. “… Million? … How much was that hat?”

Y squinted to get a slightly better view of the hat thief. A bird like Pokémon with a light blue body and soft looking white wings?

‘ _Ah, a Swablu,_ ’ Y thought as she contemplated on her options. ‘ _Fletchy can’t use any Fire type attacks without risking damage to Miss Platinum’s expensive hat._ ’ She looked at her Fletchinder to ask if it could outrun the Swablu when she noticed that the Bagon was about to attack. “No! Don’t use Flamethrower!” she hastily yelled. “We can’t damage the hat!”

The Bagon aborted its attack and looked over at Y, as if it was asking what it could do.

“… Fletchy is currently a bit over encumbered,” Y muttered as she thought of a plan. “So it can’t easily outrun the Swablu. I can’t risk any Fire type or explosive attacks, or the hat gets damaged. … Maybe water? … Surely the hat won’t be damaged by water…” She looked over at Bagon that was still waiting for her to say something. “Can you use Hydro Pump?”

The Bagon nodded and quickly shot a stream of water at the Swablu. The Swablu detected the attack far too late, and the Hydro Pump landed a direct hit. The attack wasn’t that strong, but it was enough to force the Swablu to fall and let go of the hat.

“Grab it!” Y yelled as she swooped down. The Fletchinder swooped down as well and the Bagon managed to grab the Swablu while Y managed to grab her senior’s hat before quickly spreading her arms again for her flight suit to work.

The Swablu didn’t resist as Y and Fletchinder returned to where Platinum was waiting. Y soon landed in front of her senior and handed her the hat.

“I’m sorry, Miss Platinum, but… it’s a bit wet,” Y said.

Platinum carefully set the egg canister on the ground for a bit so that she could take her hat and put it on. “It is okay. The hat will dry quickly. Thank you, Y.”

“The Bagon did all the work,” Y said as she looked at the Bagon that was now on the ground again, still holding onto Swablu. “Maybe it was returning the favor for letting it experience flight.”

“Now, as for that Swablu,” Platinum said as she crouched in front of the small Pokémon. She frowned as she saw the expression on the Swablu. “… It appears… sad. It looks as if it is longing for something…”

“Maybe it thought that your hat was like one of its kind?” Y suggested. “Usually, Swablu and Altaria fly with others of their kind. But this one is by itself. Maybe it got lost and thought your hat was one of its kind.”

“Perhaps,” Platinum said. She looked at the Swablu carefully, and noticed the dirt on its wings. “Swablu loves to be clean. But this one is quite dirty. It does support the theory that this one is lost and on its own.”

“So… what will you do?” Y asked. “We shouldn’t just leave it alone again in the wild.”

Platinum gently lifted the Swablu in her arms. “Would you like to come with me? I will assure you that you will never be alone again.”

The Swablu looked surprised at the offer, and hesitated. Platinum gently brushed off the dirt on its wings with her hands and smiled brightly. The Swablu soon lowered its guard and chirped happily.

“So, will you come with me?” Platinum asked. The Swablu nodded. “Splendid.” She took out an empty Pokéball from her bag and held it in front of the small Pokémon. The Swablu tapped the button in the center and in a flash of light, entered the Pokéball. The Pokéball shook a bit as the capture process was underway. The Swablu offered no resistance whatsoever, and the Pokéball soon stopped shaking.

“Capture completed!” Y exclaimed. “Congratulations, Miss Platinum.”

“Thank you.” Platinum sent out her newly captured Swablu, which immediately flew into its trainer’s embrace. “Nice to meet you. I am sure we will work well together.”

“Knowing you, I’m sure the Swablu will be really happy being with you,” Y said with a smile.

The Swablu flew out of its trainer’s embrace and gently perched on her head. Platinum remembered that Swablu prefers to perch on their trainers’ heads, so she decided to let it be. Instead, she picked up her Eevee egg canister once more.

“Now then, shall we get going?”

“Sure. Where to?” Y asked as she watched her senior hop onto her Rapidash. So now the heiress was carrying an Eevee egg, while sitting on a Rapidash, while a Swablu was perched on her head. It was admittedly an amusing sight.

“From here, we will head west,” Platinum said. “We will rest at Celestic Town for a little while then we will take the path through Mt. Coronet to reach Eterna City. We will rest there for the day, and tomorrow, we will take the Cycling Road to the south until we reach Oreburgh City. And from there, we will take transportation to reach Canalave City.”

“All right then. Lead the way.” Y looked down at the Bagon that was still sticking around for some reason. She smiled and gave it another gentle pat on the head. “Thanks for helping me today, Bagon. But I have to get going now. Good bye.”

The Bagon let out what sounded like a whimper again. Before Y turned away, it jumped forward and grabbed onto her leg.

“It appears to have taken a liking to you,” Platinum said from the side. A thought suddenly occurred and she smiled brightly. “Y, this is a perfect opportunity. Let it join your team.”

“Let it join…” Y suddenly frowned as she remembered her Absol. It had _allowed_ itself to be captured just to stop a crisis and had promptly abandoned her afterwards. What if this Bagon only wanted to be on her team because of flight? Would it abandon her the moment it evolved into Salamence? “… I don’t know,” she said at last.

“I understand your concerns,” Platinum said. “But you cannot let the experience from one Absol prevent you from trusting your Pokémon ever again.”

Y looked down at the Bagon that was still holding onto her leg. “… You really want to come with me?” The Bagon nodded enthusiastically. Y finally managed to smile as she crouched in front of the Bagon. “Thank you.” She took out a Pokéball from her bag and held it in front of the little Dragon Pokémon. The Bagon tapped the button and soon allowed itself to be captured. Once the Pokéball stopped shaking, Y looked at the little Bagon inside. “… You’re right, Miss Platinum. I can’t let that one instance with Absol change me too much. Thank you.” She sent out her newly captured Bagon so that she could look into its eyes clearly. “Nice to meet you, Bagon. I really hope we’ll get along well. And from this point on, I’m going to call you Bobo.”

…

Next day, June 24, Route 206, 11 am…

…

“It really feels weird,” Y said as she held onto the railing of Sinnoh’s Cycling Road. “I mean… really.”

Platinum held the brakes on her bicycle so that she could stop next to Y. The Kalos Dex Holder didn’t have a bicycle, but instead had the “rollerblades modification” installed into her boots. Apparently in the region of Kalos, a lot more people preferred using rollerblades than bicycles. And Y admitted that she had given in and purchased the modification on impulse. And now, while everyone else on the Cycling Road were on bicycles, Y was the only one using rollerblades. And since she was not proficient at it, she was also wearing her flight suit helmet and makeshift elbow and knee pads.

“This just… feels and looks very silly,” Y said as she once again made her way down the Cycling Road.

“While it is unusual to see someone with rollerblades, it is not strange,” Platinum said with a smile.

For a while, the two Dex Holders smoothly traversed the Cycling Road, taking breaks every now and then. But halfway down the Cycling Road, an accident happened.

Platinum and Y entered the steepest slope of the road when the whole Cycling Road began to shake, as if there was an earthquake happening. While Platinum managed to use the brakes to stop before she lost control, Y could not as she wasn’t proficient enough with her rollerblades. And even as she cried out for help, Y lost control of her speed and direction, and ended up colliding into the railing before falling off of the Cycling Road entirely.

Y quickly reached into her bag while falling and sent out her Greninja, which immediately wrapped its trainer in a thick layer of bubbles. Y still clenched her eyes and braced herself as she hit something really hard (based on the impact) and rolled down until she came to a halt.

Y opened her eyes once she had stopped falling/tumbling as the bubbles around her dissipated. She briefly checked her body and all of her limbs in case she was hurt somewhere and her nerves haven’t caught up yet.

“Not a single scratch,” she muttered after a sigh of relief. She smiled brightly at her Greninja that had dropped in front of her to check up on her. “Thank you so much, Kerokero. You’re getting better and better at this. I can always count on you, right?” The Greninja blushed a bit at the compliment and rubbed the back of its neck in an embarrassed manner.

“Y! Are you okay?!” came Platinum’s worried voice from above.

Y looked up and saw her senior looking down from the Cycling Road and waved at her. “I’m over here! And I’m perfectly okay!”

“Be careful!” Platinum shouted. “You are very close to Wayward Cave. Wild Garchomp and Gabite live in the area!”

“… That explains the sudden earthquake,” Y muttered as she rose to her feet after switching her boots to normal. “I’ll be careful!”

“Good. Now continue following the Cycling Road! I will see you at the exit!”

Y took off her helmet and makeshift elbow and knee pads and put them in her bag. She sent out her Fletchinder, and ordered it to follow her from high above so that Platinum would know exactly where she was at all times. Afterwards, she sent out her Sylveon and Bagon before following the Cycling Road once more.

As she walked, she felt the ground trembling a few more times, and each one was stronger than the last, as if the source was getting closer and closer.

“Guys, be ready for a fight,” Y told her Pokémon as she prepared for battle as well. “If we have to deal with wild Garchomp and Gabite, we have to ready for them ahead of time. Kerokero, look out for ambushes, and Veevee, get ready for a quick-fire Moonblast. And Bobo, if any enemy gets close, smash them with Headbutt, okay?”

Her Pokémon all acknowledged her orders and prepared themselves accordingly. But for a while, nothing happened apart from occasional tremors. Y kept her guard up, just in case. And before she could reach the end of the Cycling Road, a wild Pokémon attacked her.

She first felt the ground directly beneath her shaking violently, as if something was charging forward from under the surface. Y quickly jumped and did a back flip just as something burst out from where she had been standing a split second ago. She landed on her feet and lowered to a crouch to present less of a target as the dust settled. She expected to see a much larger Garchomp or a Gabite, but instead, she saw a little Gible. And before she could give any commands to her Pokémon, her Bagon attacked the Gible as per previously instructed.

The Bagon rammed its head into the Gible, with enough force to almost send it back underground. But the Headbutt seemed to have harmed the Bagon as well. Y saw the scratch mark on her Bagon’s head and realized why that happened.

“This Gible must have Rough Skin ability,” she muttered. “Bobo, try to avoid making physical contact,” she said. The Bagon nodded and prepared for ranged attacks.

The Gible shook away the effects of the Headbutt and burrowed underground to charge forward again. The Bagon scanned the ground to see where the Gible may burst up, but couldn’t detect the burrow charge well enough to avoid it. The Gible burst up from the ground behind the Bagon, sending it flying into the air.

“Bobo! Hydro Pump!” Y ordered once her Bagon was in a better position.

The Bagon twisted its body to face down. The moment it was directly above the Gible, it used a full power Hydro Pump. Even though its ranged attacks weren’t all that powerful, the Hydro Pump gained the additional benefit of gravity since it was aimed directly below. The Gible saw the attack and burrowed underground to avoid it, but the Hydro Pump hit the hole that it just made, which forced all the water into the little hole.

The ground burst open again as the Gible was shot upwards thanks to the water from the Hydro Pump acting as a geyser. The Bagon dropped towards the Gible at top speed and managed to ram its head directly into the Gible’s head with a gravity-boosted Headbutt.

Both the Bagon and Gible fell towards the ground. Y rushed forward to catch her Bagon, momentarily forgetting about how much it weighed. The Bagon hit her chest as she caught it and the impact immediately knocked her down to the ground.

“Ah! … Ugh… you’re heavy…” she groaned as her Bagon quickly crawled off of her. “But great job, Bobo. You managed yourself really well in the air despite not being able to fly yet. Just imagine how good you’ll be once you fully evolve!”

The Bagon let out a short roar of triumph as it happily hopped about. Just then, the wild Gible got back up as well. With an angry growl, the Gible began to thrash about, stomping on the ground repeatedly as hard as it could muster.

“Earthquake!” Y exclaimed as the ground began to shake violently. But fortunately, the Gible didn’t seem to know how to fully use Earthquake yet, as the ground stopped shaking pretty quickly. “Veevee, restrain it!”

Y’s Sylveon quickly extended its ribbons and wrapped around the wild Gible, completely immobilizing it. The Gible tried to thrash around, but couldn’t move an inch.

“So you’re the one that’s been causing these tremors,” Y said with a stern look. “That’s dangerous, you know. That whole Cycling Road could collapse, and if it does, it’d destroy Wayward Cave, and hurt a _lot_ of people and Pokémon!”

The Gible steadily calmed down and dropped its hostility. Y’s Sylveon released it, but remained on guard just in case.

Y suddenly realized that she recognized the expression on the Gible. She had seen it on her Bagon after it had lost to her Fletchinder. So this Gible wanted something, but couldn’t get it. … Y lightened her expression as she recalled what Platinum had said to her the previous day. She crouched in front of the Gible and tried to appear as friendly as possible.

“… You want to get stronger, don’t you?” she asked nicely. “That’s why you’ve been causing a bit of a ruckus here. You wanted to learn how to use Earthquake, and wanted to become stronger by defeating opponents. That’s why you attacked us. … But you don’t have to do that alone, you know.”

The Gible looked up at her, wondering what she was talking about. Y simply smiled.

“Why don’t you come with me? Together, we can become stronger much faster.”

The Gible soon nodded and accepted her offer. Y took out an empty Pokéball and captured the Gible with it. She then sent out the newly captured Gible.

“From now on, I’m going to call you Toto. And together, we’ll be a great team.”

The Gible looked at all of Y’s other Pokémon before meeting the gaze of her Bagon. The Gible glared at the Bagon, as it hadn’t gotten over its defeat quite yet. The Bagon sensed the hostility and glared back. Y’s Sylveon sensed the hostility and used its ribbons to split the two apart. The two Dragons glared at each other once more before turning away simultaneously. Y let out a short sigh.

“A rivalry, huh? … I suppose that could be useful in a team…”

…

A week later, July 1, Isle Avue, Alola, 1 pm…

…

Y stretched her limbs while lying down on the beach. The warmth felt so good, and she had never felt so relaxed before, ever. She looked over to her right, where her Pokémon were playing with other Pokémon, all enjoying the nice weather. She looked over to her left, where she saw Platinum lightly dozing while on the beach chair, with her Eevee egg canister securely held in her arms. White was lying on the beach next to her, enjoying the calmness as well. And next to her, Moon remained seated on the sand, looking rather… bored. Unlike the other three, the Alola Dex Holder wasn’t in her swimsuit, as she apparently had no intention of going in the water.

The heiress suddenly let out a short yawn and sat up a bit as she checked the condition of her Eevee egg.

“Miss Platinum,” Y started, now that her senior was awake. “If you aimed to get a nice sexy tan while in the beaches of Alola, sitting under a _giant_ parasol isn’t the way to do it.”

White chuckled as she looked up at the parasol. “Yeah. It looks so thick too. I wouldn’t be surprised if it blocks out even gamma radiation.”

Platinum smiled and looked at her two juniors. “You do not have to sit next to me if you desire a suntan.” She gently held the egg incubator canister and checked its temperature. “The warmth of this island is supposedly very beneficial for egg hatching. That is the only reason I am here. But if you two wish to do something in the meantime…”

“We wouldn’t want to leave you all by yourself, Lady Platinum,” White said. “Besides, the sunlight here seems a bit too strong. I wouldn’t want to get burned.”

“I think I want a sand massage. Or whatever it’s called,” Y said. “White, can you help me?”

“Okay, sure.”

Y moved towards the edge of the shade cast by the parasol and lied down on the hot sand but in a way that the shadow of the parasol just covered her head. White crawled over and began burying Y’s body with sand.

“Ooh… hot, hot, hot…” Y said as she squirmed. “Damn the sand is hot. But it feels so good.”

“And the sunlight will keep your sand tomb very hot,” White said as she finished covering her junior with sand. “So if it gets too hot, either force your way out or call for help.”

Platinum smiled as she took out her Empoleon’s Pokéball. “Or Empoleon can encase your little sand tomb in ice with Blizzard.”

“Um… no thanks.”

The egg inside the incubator suddenly shook a few times. Platinum immediately noticed and looked at it.

“Oh, it shook again,” she said excitedly. The other three Dex Holder all looked at the Eevee egg. “It must be getting really close to hatching. This is the fourth time the egg shook today!”

“So close,” White said. “I really want to see it hatch. The little Eevee is going to be so cute!”

“It’s an egg from Kanto, that’d hatch in Alola, but is going to stay in Sinnoh,” Moon said. “That’s… quite interesting. It already traveled far more than I have.”

Platinum held the incubator even closer to her chest. “Oh, I cannot wait…”

“Well, well, well, look what we have here,” came a stranger’s voice from the side all of a sudden. “It’s just four little girls taking up the best spot in this beach.”

The four Dex Holders quickly looked where the voice came from and saw two… _punks_ standing with their arms crossed. Moon recognized the outfit and let out a sigh.

“Oh… Team Skull…”

“Don’t you know the rules?” the leading grunt asked as he approached the Dex Holders. “You can’t just set up _camp_ in this beach without paying rent!”

“Rent?” Platinum said with a frown. “Is that… common?”

“That’s ridiculous!” White said. “Who pays rent for using the beach? Maybe for parking, but this is-”

“Of course you outsiders wouldn’t know!” the other grunt said menacingly. “But around here, the rules are simple. You either pay the rent, _or else_.”

“Don’t listen to them,” Moon said with a sigh. “These guys are just trying to extort money.”

“You don’t seem to understand, _little girl_ ,” the leading grunt said. “You will pay for this spot, one way or another.”

Platinum got up to her feet to face the Team Skull grunts. Seeing her rise, her Empoleon and Lopunny quickly came closer, just in case. One by one, the Dex Holders’ Pokémon gathered towards their trainers.

“I request that you leave us,” the heiress said sternly. “Do not harass us and please leave.”

“And I keep saying,” the grunt said angrily. “That you don’t seem to understand!”

The grunt suddenly kicked the giant parasol, knocking it over and effectively creating a barrier between the Dex Holders and their Pokémon. And with the parasol knocked over, the strong sunlight temporarily blinded the Dex Holders, leaving them defenseless for a brief moment. During that moment, the other grunt quickly shoved Platinum off of her feet and snatched her Eevee egg canister and began to run.

Platinum hit the ground and forced her eyes to open. She quickly realized that the two Team Skull grunts have stolen her Eevee egg.

“No! Stop!” she yelled out in horror, as she chased after them as fast as she could run.

Y quickly forced herself out of the little sand tomb. “Toto! Go after them!” she yelled out. “Fletchy! You too!”

Y’s Fletchinder quickly flew over the knocked over parasol and chased after the fleeing grunts. The Gible burrowed underground and charged forward towards them as well.

“Be careful!” White yelled out as she ran after the grunts as well. “We can’t risk damaging the-”

Before she even finished, there was a loud “twing” like noise from behind, as if a string with really high tension was released. White spun around and spotted Moon with her bow out, having shot at the two Team Skull grunts with her flat-headed arrows.

The two grunts had already reached paved ground when the arrow reached them. The grunt holding the egg canister stumbled after getting hit by the arrow on the back of his head. And just as Platinum reached the pavement as well, the grunt tripped and fell, dropping the egg canister at the same time.

Platinum shrieked in horror as the egg canister hit the paved ground and shattered, sending the egg inside crashing into the pavement at full speed with a loud crack. The egg cracked badly on impact, with pieces of the shell flying off from the impact. Platinum stumbled towards the partly smashed egg and dropped to her knees, with her hands clamped over her mouth.

“N – No…” she muttered, beginning to tremble. She shakily touched the cracked egg and gasped as she felt the shell cracking in her gentle grip. “No, no, no…”

White and Y soon arrived next to her and stood horrified as well. Moon remained frozen in place still on the beach as she realized the repercussions of her bow shot. She shakily approached her seniors and stared at the smashed egg in complete shock.

“Lady Platinum…” White began, trying and failing to come up with something to say to her senior to comfort her.

Platinum lowered her head and visibly trembled as she fought the urge to cry. But she quickly lost the fight and began to sob silently.

Y glared at the Team Skull grunt who had tried to steal the egg. The two grunts were fleeing the scene now. Y wanted to chase them and beat their heads in, but couldn’t leave her senior like this.

She crouched next to her senior, thinking of what she could say to help. She had been with the heiress for the past two weeks now, and knew just how much Platinum had been taking care of that egg. And as time passed, the heiress had gotten more and more attached to her Eevee egg. To see the egg smashed now… Y felt her own tears welling in her eyes and closed them. … She didn’t want to see the destroyed egg either.

White suddenly gasped as she saw the destroyed egg move a bit. She opened her eyes wide and carefully observed the egg, in case she saw wrong. But even as she watched, the egg shook a bit again.

“Lady Platinum!” she quickly shouted. “Look!”

Platinum opened her eyes and looked at the destroyed egg. Even through her tears, she could see the cracked egg shaking. She touched the egg with her hands in case she was seeing things, and upon feeling the egg shaking in her hands, she quickly pulled back and left it alone.

“Is it hatching?” Y asked in disbelief. “How? I was so worried that it was destroyed…”

“It must’ve been _that_ close to hatching,” White suggested. “It must’ve been so close that the fall didn’t damage the Eevee inside.”

The egg shook again and a piece of its shell fell off, revealing the little paw that had kicked that piece off. The paw quickly retracted, however, as if the Eevee wasn’t fully ready to enter the new world quite yet.

The four Dex Holders held their breaths as the little Eevee began to slowly kick off more pieces of the egg shell. Eventually, a big chunk of the shell fell off and the little Eevee poked its head through to face the outside world for the first time. And the very first thing it saw was Platinum’s teary face. The little Eevee jumped back in surprise at the sudden close proximity, which made Platinum quickly pull back as well.

“Eevee…” she said, her voice shaking. “Are… are you okay?”

The Eevee perked up at the sound of her voice, as she sounded awfully… familiar. Platinum slowly reached towards the Eevee with her hand. The little Pokémon saw the motion and backed away in fright, but soon lowered its guard as Platinum’s presence just felt familiar. The heiress gently touched its cheek with her hand before pulling back, in case she was causing it discomfort.

The little Eevee soon climbed out of its broken egg shell, and took a cautious step towards Platinum. The heiress extended her hands again slowly, while her three juniors carefully watched in silence. After a few seconds, the Eevee hopped onto Platinum’s lap and accepted her embrace.

Platinum let out a sigh of relief that sounded like a sob as she embraced her new Eevee. “Oh, I’m so relieved… You’re okay!”

“Congratulations, Miss Platinum!” Y said happily from the side.

“We were so worried!” White said as well. “But maybe we should go to the nearest Pokémon Center, just in case.”

Platinum nodded. “Yes. We will head there at once,” she said as she wiped away her tears. She smiled brightly as she looked at her Eevee. “Will you come with me?”

The little Eevee nodded and happily wagged its tail while still in her embrace. Platinum gave it a soft kiss on the forehead and rose to her feet.

“We should head back first,” Y said. “All of our stuff is still at the beach, with no one left to guard them. There might be more of those… weird jerks out there.”

“And we’re not going to a Pokémon Center like _this_ , are we?” White asked, pointing at her swimsuit. “The nearest Pokémon Center is still a bit far, so we should change back into our regular clothes before going there.”

“I can go to the Pokémon Center ahead of you if you want,” Moon offered. “I’m not in my swimsuit, so I can go on ahead with your Eevee and check if it’s okay.” She approached the Eevee in Platinum’s arms and extended a hand.

The Eevee suddenly pulled back in fear at the approach of a complete stranger. Platinum saw the motion and turned away a bit to try to comfort it.

“The Eevee seems to be afraid of strangers at the moment,” she said. “It appears that I must be the one to take it to the Pokémon Center.” She slowly turned towards Moon again. “But perhaps you can take a look and see if it is okay.”

Platinum carefully set the Eevee down on the ground, but remained crouching next to it. Moon crouched as well and looked at the Eevee, trying to see if there were any injuries or other irregularities. The Eevee backed away from her and only focused on following Platinum. The heiress moved around a bit, smiling and encouraging the Eevee to follow, while Moon observed the little Pokémon’s movements.

“It looks perfectly healthy,” she said after another couple of minutes.

“That’s a relief,” White said. “What a stroke of luck, really. Some jerk comes out of nowhere to steal the egg and smash it, and yet the Eevee hatched and is perfectly unharmed.”

“We should still go to a Pokémon Center just to be sure,” Moon said.

“Yes. We shall head there as soon as possible,” Platinum said. “And afterwards, as per White’s suggestion, we will go take a look at this region’s newly opened Pokémon League.”

…

Next day, July 2, Mount Lanakila, Ula’ula Island, Alola, 2pm…

…

Platinum, White, and Y stood facing the tall cliff wall that led to the Pokémon League. Moon apparently had something important she had to do so she could not accompany the three visiting Dex Holders.

Platinum held her Eevee in her arms and occasionally played with it. Thanks to her efforts when it was still an egg, the Eevee had gotten accustomed to her very quickly and was completely at ease around her.

… She also had her Swablu perched on her head, as the Cotton Bird Pokémon had apparently taken a real liking to her hat. It made things a bit tricky, as whenever Platinum lowered her head to play with her Eevee, her Swablu would also get tilted forward and almost fall off every time. At the very least, the Eevee appeared to be amused watching the Swablu flailing a bit to regain balance.

White took another picture as she looked around the area. She had already taken quite a few photos, as she intended on showing them to Black upon returning to Unova. That way, Black would be more inclined to take on the Pokémon League of Alola and achieve his dreams that were sort of ruined back in Unova.

“Ah, so that elevator takes us up the cliff and to the Pokémon League,” White said as she pointed at the tiny elevator built on the cliff wall. “… It really doesn’t look safe at all. It looks like a disaster just waiting to happen, really.”

“The guys who built this place must’ve stress tested it,” Y suggested. “So… it’s probably safe. And if it’s not… Kerokero here will save us.”

“Well, let’s get up there,” White said after taking a picture of the tiny elevator. “… And brace yourselves.”

The three Dex Holders approached the elevator and was about to step onto the rising platform when Platinum’s Eevee suddenly perked up as if it had sensed something. Platinum stopped in her tracks and looked at her Pokémon. The Eevee looked around here and there as if it was looking for something particular before hopping out of its trainer’s embrace.

“Oh? Is something wrong?” Platinum asked in surprise.

The Eevee began to walk somewhere, and Platinum quickly followed. White and Y watched her senior for a bit before following as well. The Eevee seemed to be following some sort of an invisible trail as it walked towards what appeared to be a cave entrance.

“Isn’t that a bit dangerous for a newly hatched Eevee?” White asked.

“We’ll make sure nothing bad happens,” Y said as she jogged ahead. She stood by the cave entrance until she was sure that the Eevee was heading in there before going in first. “Ah, it’s cold!”

“Eevee, where are you going?” Platinum asked in worry. “Is something wrong?

The Eevee shook its head but continued walking. Y glanced back at it occasionally while walking ahead, in case some wild Pokémon popped out.

Y turned a corner and jumped in surprise as something popped out from the shadows. She quickly prepared for battle in case there was one.

“What is it?” White asked as she got behind her junior. She soon saw the wild Pokémon as well. “Hey, is that a… Vulpix?”

“Seems like it,” Y answered. “But… why is it… white?”

The Vulpix suddenly shot a stream of white mist at Y. She blocked the mist with her arm and cried out in surprise as a thick layer of ice encased her arm.

“What?! But… Vulpix is a Fire type!” White yelled in surprise as Y fell backwards, clutching at her frozen arm.

“It must be one of those Alola forms,” Platinum said as she faced the Vulpix. “I have heard of these from Professor Rowan. They have differing types and abilities. So while a normal Vulpix is a Fire type, it seems that the Alola one is an Ice type. Interesting…” She took out a Pokéball from her bag containing her Empoleon. “… I will capture this one.”

White and Y pulled away a little so that their senior would have some room for the battle. Y sent out her Bagon which began to use a low powered Flamethrower to quickly melt the ice encasing the girl’s arm.

For a while, the battle between Empoleon and the wild Vulpix continued. Platinum had already noticed that the wild Vulpix had a huge weakness to Steel types, and was trying to avoid causing too much damage by using Steel type moves. The Vulpix also had the ability to use Freeze-Dry, which made things a bit problematic for Water types.

Platinum eventually decided to end the battle when the Vulpix appeared to be exhausted. The Empoleon charged towards the Vulpix with Drill Peck. The Vulpix didn’t have the strength left to dodge the attack and ended up falling. Platinum quickly threw an empty Pokéball at the Vulpix. And since it didn’t have the strength left to fight it for long, the capture succeeded.

“Capture successful. Congratulations, Lady Platinum,” White said.

“Thank you. I look forward to learning the differences of the Alola Vulpix and a regular Vulpix.” Platinum put the Pokéball in her bag and looked over at Y. “How is your arm?”

Y clenched her hand into a fist a few times. “Still stings a bit, but I think I’m fine. Thank you, Bobo.”

The Bagon hopped up a bit before returning to its Pokéball, as it didn’t like the coldness of the cave. Y put the Pokéball away and steadily rose up to her feet when Platinum’s Eevee began to move again.

“Oh, here we go again,” White said as she followed the little Eevee.

Y jogged ahead once more to take the lead, but being extra careful this time. The Eevee occasionally sniffed at the air but continued walking, still following some invisible trail.

Soon, the group came across a big clearing. There were holes in the wall and ceiling, which allowed natural light to enter and illuminate the area. And in the center of the clearing was a giant white rock.

“What is that?” Y asked. “… A block of ice? Snow?”

The Eevee walked up to the rock and sniffed at it. After sniffing around a bit more, it placed a paw on the rock and began to glow bright white. Platinum gasped in shock and hastily took a step forward until she realized what was happening.

“Is it… evolving?” White asked in surprise.

“This rock must be one of those ice rocks,” Platinum said. “If I recall, there is one near Lake Acuity in Sinnoh. If an Eevee is around that rock, it will evolve into-”

The Eevee finished evolving and lowered its paw. It looked at the changes done to its body and circled around a bit before excitedly running towards its trainer again.

“It’s a Glaceon!” Y said as she crouched in front of the newly evolved Pokémon. “Aww… it’s so cute!” She extended her non-frozen hand to pet it. The Glaceon saw the motion and quickly breathed out at the hand, encasing it in a thin layer of ice. “Ah! My hand!” Y cried out, pulling her hand back. The layer of ice shattered quickly, and the girl spent a few seconds clenching and unclenching her hand to make sure everything was okay. She glared at the Glaceon, which had turned completely away, blatantly ignoring her now. “… Oh, I have a feeling that we are going to be _good_ friends…”

Platinum crouched as well and allowed the Glaceon to hop into her arms. “You must have sensed this rock from all the way out there. That is why you led us all here, no?”

The Glaceon happily nodded. Platinum smiled as she embraced her newly evolved Glaceon. But the Glaceon was a bit too heavy for her to easily carry it around, so she set it on the ground so that it would just follow her closely.

The group soon left the cave and back to the small elevator by the cliff. Platinum had memorized the path she took when her Eevee had led her, so it was easy to backtrack to get back outside.

And upon taking the very dangerous looking elevator, the three Dex Holders managed to reach Alola region’s Pokémon League.

White soon became engrossed with taking pictures and notes about the Alola League for Black, which left Platinum and Y alone to themselves for a while.

“Y,” Platinum began as a thought occurred.

“Yes?”

“I have been thinking about this for a while now, but… I think it would help you greatly if you take on the Pokémon League in Kalos.”

“How so?” Y asked.

“To challenge the Pokémon League, a trainer and the Pokémon need to be working together very effectively. So to you, just the process of getting to the Pokémon League can help you regain confidence in your Pokémon.” Platinum smiled as she recalled her journey around Sinnoh. “And speaking from experience, just traveling with your friends, overcoming the challenges of the Gyms and becoming stronger with your Pokémon is very fun. You must give it a try.”

Y thought about the idea of traveling with her friends around Kalos… but without the feeling of being chased and hunted. A leisurely travel with friends, bonding with her Pokémon more and more… it certainly sounded promising. She looked at her senior’s scarf and saw the 8 Sinnoh Gym Badges pinned on it. She also thought about Sapphire’s 8 Hoenn Gym Badges pinned on her bag, and thought about the possibility of her joining her two seniors in having all 8 Gym Badges of her region. It’d certainly give credibility to her skills as a trainer…

Y took out the Pokéballs containing her Gible and Bagon. The Pokémon League challenge would also provide the perfect opportunity for her to better befriend her two new Pokémon and become stronger with them.

“… Okay. I’ll give it a shot,” she said with a determined nod.

Platinum smiled brightly. “Splendid. You will do admirably. I look forward to hearing your progress.”

“It might take some work, convincing X to come with me on a journey like this,” Y began. “I don’t think he’d want to go anywhere near a Pokémon League.”

“But he would be interested if it is helpful to you,” Platinum countered. “After all, he is the one who called White and informed her about what happened to you. He cares about you more than you think. He would be willing to come along if you ask him.”

“If you think so… I’ll definitely ask him,” Y said. “… I think I’ll ask him the moment I return to Kalos.”

…

3 days later, Pokémon League, Kalos, 2 pm…

…

Y finished circling around the large structure and steadily landed on a large hill of the Victory Road that offered a great view of the Pokémon League structure. Her Fletchinder let go of the Bagon and perched on Y’s shoulder, as Y sent out the remainder of her team.

“Check it out, guys,” she said as she looked at the large structure. “That’s our goal, right there. We can’t challenge the Pokémon League right now since I’m not qualified for it, but that’s what our journey will be for. Can you feel the excitement?”

Her Pokémon all nodded. Y watched each one and nodded approvingly.

“All right. We’ll start training immediately, but we’ll take it a bit easy today. So we’ll be training in here for a little while before going home to rest. So let’s do this.”

For a while, Y watched over her Pokémon as they trained. She put more focus on Bagon and Gible since they were new. And because the two Dragons seemed to be focusing on outdoing each other, Y thought about possible ways to use that rivalry for the better. The Bagon seemed to prefer ranged attacks while the Gible preferred close range, so if the two could work together, they would be able to accomplish so much…

Y thought about the Kalos Gym Leaders and her rough plan for facing each of them. Currently, she felt that Bagon and Gible needed more training before they can be that useful in an actual battle, while the other 3 in her team were perfectly ready.

Against Viola and her Bug types, Y planned on using Fletchinder and Bagon, but more emphasis on Bagon for the sake of training. If Viola annoyed her too much, then she’d focus more on Fletchinder. But… Y didn’t want to be that aggressive against her, given that whole… “Shauna’s mind control” incident a while back. The Santalune Gym Leader had saved her life, and Y didn’t want to “repay” that by challenging her with a Pokémon that had superior type advantage over her entire team.

Against Grant and his Rock types, Y had Gible and Greninja, but again with more focus on Gible. Hopefully by then, Gible would’ve mastered some Ground type attack other than a simple burrow-charge.

Korrina’s Fighting types would have to be matched with Sylveon and Fletchinder. And extra caution had to be taken for that Mega Lucario.

Ramos and his Grass types wouldn’t be an issue given Fletchinder and Bagon’s Flamethrower. Especially if Bagon evolved once… or twice.

… Clemont could go suck on a Gible or a Gabite or a Garchomp. No worries there.

Y suddenly snapped out of her thoughts when she heard something rustling from behind. She quickly spun around and gathered her Pokémon, in the event of a wild Pokémon attacking.

And as Y watched with narrowed eyes, a small figure stumbled out of the bushes. Y blinked a few times, as the small Pokémon was not what she had imagined when she thought about wild Pokémon in the Victory Road. The small Pokémon stumbled some more and promptly walked into a tree.

Y approached the small Pokémon and recognized it as a Deino. The little Pokémon was covered in scratches and injuries, as if it had been attacked recently. Y crouched next to the Deino as it struggled up to its feet.

“Hey, are you okay?” Y asked worriedly.

The Deino perked up at hearing her voice and moved around, trying to see where the voice was coming from. … Except that Deino can’t see in the first place, so it ended up walking into a tree again.

Y reached for it but it suddenly snapped its jaw in the air, trying to bite whatever it was that was coming closer. The girl quickly pulled her hand back and instead, took out her Pokédex.

“Okay… Deino…” she muttered as she read the data. “ _They can’t see so they tackle and bite things to learn their surroundings. Their bodies are covered in wounds._ ” Y glanced at the Deino and nodded. “Yep. Seems to be the case. _They eat anything that moves._ … Um… I don’t think I’ll be trying to pet you again…” She put away her Pokédex and took out some Dragon food that she had for Bagon and Gible. “But here, you can eat this though. And only this, mind you.”

The Deino soon caught the smell of the food and clumsily stumbled over. It sniffed around to detect where the food was exactly and soon chomped into it… except that it missed and it ended up eating a mouthful of dirt.

Y giggled as she saw the Deino try again. She found it surprisingly… cute (and sadly comical). It soon succeeded in eating some Dragon food, and appeared to like it quite a bit. It wolfed down all the food that Y had placed (and even an inch of dirt underneath the food), and began to look around for some more.

The Deino stopped right in front of Y’s knee, as it detected something new. It suddenly opened its mouth to take a bite.

“Ah! No!” Y quickly shouted as she stumbled backwards. And surprisingly, the Deino stopped in its motion. And instead, it stumbled closer towards her and looked up. “Do you… want some more?” Y asked, being careful to stay out of its biting range. The Deino seemed to nod. “Okay then. Here you go,” she said as she poured some more food onto the ground in front of the Deino. She looked back as she heard some annoyed growling, and saw her Bagon and Gible looking a bit upset. “Calm down, Bobo and Toto. I’ll get you more food. I was going to stop by a store and buy more on the way home anyways, so… just relax.”

The Deino let out a short bark-like-cry of delight and began to eat the food again. Y watched it eat for a while before she rose to her feet.

“Okay, guys, let’s get back to training,” she said as she faced her Pokémon. She began to walk towards her Pokémon but stopped after a few steps when she heard something shuffling from behind. She turned around again and saw that the Deino had finished eating everything and was walking behind her. It didn’t notice that Y had stopped, as it soon walked right into her leg. “Oh? Do you want more food?”

The Deino didn’t nod, but instead just looked up at her (not that it could see though). Y took another couple of steps forward before stopping and watched. There was a pause before Deino realize that Y wasn’t standing right in front of it anymore, and quickly stumbled forward to catch up. But again, it failed to notice that Y had stopped, and ran into her leg once again.

Y smiled and crouched in front of the Deino. “Aww, you’re cute,” she said as she carefully extended a hand. The Deino faced the incoming hand, but sniffed first instead of biting first. It recognized Y’s scent and let the girl pet it. Y gently lifted the Deino into her arms, expecting it to be a lot heavier. “Oh, you’re a lot lighter than I thought,” she said as she easily lifted it off the ground. “But… why are you following me around? You don’t seem to want more food. … Do you… want to come with me and join my team?”

The Deino nodded enthusiastically. Y smiled happily and reached for an empty Pokéball from her bag. The Deino offered no resistance and allowed itself to be captured. Y looked at the Deino in the ball for a brief moment before sending it out. And the moment the Deino appeared next to her other Pokémon, she suddenly realized that she now had a full team of 6 once again.

Ever since she had released Xerneas, returned Rhyhorn to her mother (or rather, letting it stay in the backyard), and was forced to release Absol, she had only half of a team. But now, she had a full team once again. And she never felt so… excited before. She couldn’t wait to begin her journey around Kalos to conquer the Gyms with her new team.

“Deino, from now on, I’m going to call you… Saza,” Y said as she petted the Deino. “And now… our team is ready. Fletchy, Kerokero, Veevee, Bobo, Toto, and Saza… together, we’ll make one hell of a good team. So let’s do it! Let’s go conquer the Kalos Gyms!”


	4. Rendezvous

Chapter 1: Rendezvous

August 10, Pallet Town, Kanto, 7 am…

Blue lightly hummed to herself as she continued rolling up the rice with the dried seaweed. She was careful to not overdo with the ingredients, keeping the delicate balance to make each cut portion to be perfectly filling and flavorful but not overly big. Once she was satisfied that the roll was not overly filled and that it wouldn’t fall apart, she took the knife and sliced the roll into perfect sized bites. She neatly stacked them in the lunchbox before taking out another sheet of dried seaweed to make another roll.

Unfortunately, she had to pack quite a lot, given how many people would be eating this lunch. And since Red was completely helpless in terms of preparing food, Blue had to prepare everything herself.

Not that she minded, of course. Red had offered her a place to live when she had nowhere else to go, and he was letting her live in his house for free, providing her the care and warmth that she realized she had been longing for a very long time. Making the meals was the very least that she could do. And honestly, Red had tried to make her food once, and that was a disaster, so… things were better this way.

For another hour, Blue kept preparing the lunch while humming to herself. She soon heard a creak in the stairs and realized that Red had woken up from the alarm clock and had wandered downstairs to see what she was up to.

“Good morning, Red,” Blue said cheerfully as she turned to look at him.

“Morning,” Red said with a wave, still looking half asleep. He let out a long yawn. “… I am not used to waking up this early…”

“I know. I’d prefer to catch a few more hours of sleep myself,” Blue said, returning to work. “But… can’t be helped this time. You don’t want to let your juniors know that you didn’t go out to greet them because you were asleep.”

“Yeah, I know,” Red said as he stepped closer. “What are you making there? Our breakfast?”

“No. This is going to be our lunch,” Blue answered. “We’ll need something to eat for the trip, don’t we? Especially the visiting juniors.”

“… Can I have some though?” Red asked. “I’m getting hungry.”

“No, Red. This is for the juniors. I’ll make our breakfast afterwards. I’m almost done.”

Red let out a short groan. He kept his eyes glued on the nicely packed lunch, occasionally glancing at Blue to make sure that she was distracted. Once she started on a new roll, he slowly and carefully reached for the open pack so that he could steal a bite. Blue felt the motion behind her, alerted by the fact that Red was being too quiet, and quickly turned to look at the hand reaching for the food. She quickly but lightly swatted it away.

“I said no, Red.”

“Ow?” Red said as he pulled his hand back. “… Can’t I just have one?”

“Nope. You must be patient, Red. _Patience_.”

“Oh, but I’m starving right now,” Red whined as he planned his next move. The moment Blue turned around again, he quickly swiped a piece out of the lunch pack, and stuffed it in his mouth.

Blue obviously heard and felt the rapid motion, and swiveled around once again. She noticed the empty piece in the neatly aligned grid of pieces in the pack. “What the…” She lightly glared at Red, who was averting eye contact while feigning innocence. He apparently didn’t account for the fact that there’d be rice pieces stuck on his face near the mouth. She let out a short sigh. “Oh well. I guess it can’t be helped. You can have the rest of this row. But no more, mister. This has to be neatly packed for the juniors.”

“Thank you!” Red said as he began moving the pieces onto a plate. He finally began to chew the piece he had stolen. “Wow, this is good.”

Blue smiled as she watched him stuffing more pieces into his mouth before he even finished eating the last piece. She resumed preparing lunch and by the time she had finished, Red had finished eating the few pieces he was given and was waiting patiently.

“There. And now we can have breakfast,” Blue said with a short sigh of relief.

“And I will wait patiently,” Red said as he moved towards the kitchen counter once more to stack the lunch boxes inside a small bag.

Blue watched him and noticed that there was still a rice piece stuck right next to the corner of his mouth. When he turned to face her, she instinctively reached out with her fingers, with the intent of brushing away the rice. But just before her finger made contact with him, she paused. … This action was way too intimate. … She could not do it. She _must_ not do it, either. Red looked over at her hand, wondering why she was reaching out for him. Blue quickly reacted and used her outstretched hand to point at the rice.

“You got some food stuck on your face there,” she said as she quickly pulled her hand back.

“Huh? Oh.” Red felt the rice stuck next to his mouth and consumed it. “Thanks.”

Blue felt her smile fading and spun around to hide her expression from Red. Instead, she chose to focus on making breakfast, distracting herself from her thoughts.

Within half an hour, Blue finished making breakfast and sat across the table from Red. For a while, the two Dex Holders ate in silence. Red was focusing on enjoying the delicious meal, and Blue chose to focus on what was going to happen in a few hours.

Red suddenly broke the silence. “When exactly are they going to arrive?” he asked, referring to the juniors that were visiting Kanto.

After the vacation trip to Alola, Platinum, White, and Y have decided to go on another vacation trip, this time to the joined regions of Kanto and Johto. Though they initially planned to arrive on Kanto before Red’s birthday on August 8, White had a slight issue within her companies that delayed the trip by a few days.

Apparently White was bringing Black for the trip, so Red wouldn’t be _too_ bored or lonely, being on a trip with only girls. Y had attempted to bring X as well, but that hadn’t gone according to plan, it seemed. And Diamond and Pearl were currently in Johto, so they wouldn’t be coming with Platinum, but instead joining the group later on.

And upon request from Platinum, Red and Blue agreed to accompany the visitors, almost like a tour guide. Blue looked forward to enjoying a nice relaxing vacation with her juniors, and planned to use this opportunity to bond even more with them. And Red… looked forward to seeing how stronger they’ve become.

Blue checked the time. “They’ll arrive in about three hours. Just enough time for us to finish eating, clean up, and head to Vermilion City and wait for them. Although they’re all coming in different ships, so some are going to arrive earlier.”

“I can’t wait to see how stronger they’ve gotten,” Red said (predictably) with a grin. “You think we’ll have time for a little practice battle when they arrive?”

Blue let out a short sigh. “I anticipated this would happen, so yes. I made sure we’d have some time to catch up and… battle before going.”

“Oh, I can’t wait,” Red said. He quickly wolfed down the rest of his breakfast. “All right. I’ll clean the dishes while you get ready for the day. That’ll save us some time, right?”

Blue smiled and finished eating her breakfast. “Okay then. I guess I take up more time in getting ready for the day.”

…

Vermilion City harbor, 10:30 am…

…

Blue tilted the rim of her hat to shield herself better from the strong sunlight. She remained standing outside the harbor, leaning against the guard rails the prevented people from accidentally walking off into the ocean.

Red stood beside her with a large backpack that contained the prepared lunch and a variety of other necessary equipment, such as sleeping bags, kitchen utensils, and spare clothes. He briefly wondered if he had everything needed for a trip around Kanto and quite possibly Johto, but he figured that Blue would’ve prepared for pretty much everything, and they could always stop by a store for resupplying.

The ship from Kalos was first to arrive. Red and Blue watched as waves after waves of people exited the harbor, trying to find Y amidst the people. They eventually found her trudging out the harbor, looking _very_ tired, as if she had just woken up from a not-so-restful sleep.

Y dragged her luggage lazily behind her. Once she had finally stepped out into the bright sunlight, she let out a long yawn and stretched her limbs. Once she rubbed her eyes, she finally spotted Red and Blue waving at her from afar.

She finally seemed to snap awake upon seeing them, and happily waved back at them. She quickly ran towards them, being careful not to run into anyone.

“Hi, Y,” Blue said with a smile as her Kalos junior approached. “It’s great to see you again.”

“Hi, Blue, and Red,” Y said happily. “And happy belated birthday, Red.”

“Huh? Oh yeah. Thanks,” Red said with a smile.

“So… looks like you’ve had a good night’s sleep,” Blue said jokingly, examining her junior’s tired expression. “Enjoy the cruise here?”

Y let out a long groan. “Ugh… I _hate_ water…” she said bitterly. “… I’ve been seasick for the entire trip here…”

“But you’ve been to Alola with Platinum and White, haven’t you?” Blue asked. “Surely you must’ve taken a lot of ferries.”

“Yeah, but Miss Platinum arranged all of them, and she picked the most luxurious ships,” Y said. “Those… didn’t make me seasick. But _this one_ … ugh. … Please tell me we aren’t going to take another ferry…”

Blue grinned. “Oh, I was planning to include a tour of the Sevii Islands, which are only accessible via ferries.”

“Yeah. Blue lived there for a while, so she knows all the best spots,” Red said as well. “It would’ve been perfect.”

Y shuddered as she recalled how many times she had thrown up on the trip to Kanto. “… I can only hope that you’re joking. It’s bad enough that I have to take another cheap ferry back to Kalos once all this is over…”

Blue smiled. “Of course we’re joking, kid. Don’t worry. This group tour is supposed to be relaxing and fun for everyone.”

“Oh, speaking of fun,” Red began. “I heard from Platinum that you’re taking on the Kalos Gyms. How’s that going for you?”

Y grinned as she held up her right hand. On her wrist was a large wristband of sorts, and on them, all 8 Kalos Gym Badges were pinned. “I got them all!” she said triumphantly, with her other hand on her hip, obviously quite proud of herself.

“Oh, wow, congratulations,” Blue said with a short applause. “I didn’t think you’d beat all of them so quickly. You must’ve beaten Platinum’s record, and certainly beat Sapphire’s record.”

“And mine,” Red said with a laugh. “Now I have four juniors who got all 8 Gym Badges of their region faster than I did.”

“Oh? How long did you take?” Y asked.

Red shrugged. “I don’t know. About… 14 years and counting?”

“Huh?”

Blue chuckled a bit. “Red never got the 8th Gym Badge.”

“Yep,” Red said. “I beat Giovanni in Viridian City, who was the Viridian City Gym Leader at the time, but… neither of us was awake, and… when I woke up I wasn’t there anymore. And he wasn’t there anymore. And he never gave me the Earth Badge. And I don’t really care, so… there you go.”

“Well, that’s a weird technicality,” Y commented. “But still, it’s not fair to compare myself with you or Sapphire or Miss Platinum. Or Black, for that matter. You all battled the Gyms on your first travels. I did it on my second. I know that Sapphire spent a tremendous amount of time in-between Gyms to explore mountains and forests, and even paused her challenges to fight Team Aqua and Team Magma. Miss Platinum also had to deal with Team Galactic as well. While I pretty much just made a beeline for each Gym with nothing else to worry about.”

“Where’d you get that wristband?” Blue asked, looking at the weirdly plastic-looking wristband. “It doesn’t look like something you can get at a random store.”

“No. This is something that Clemont, the Lumiose Gym Leader, gave to me,” Y explained. “It has 8 slots, one for each Kalos Gym Badge, and it holds the Badges in place with a short-ranged magnetic field, so they won’t fall out or anything. It’s really handy. I’ve actually thought a lot about where I was going to pin the Badges. Sapphire has her bag, Miss Platinum has her scarf, and Black has his coat. So I wanted to pin them somewhere new, but I didn’t know where exactly. And Clemont gave me the solution.”

“So, are you going to challenge the Pokémon League now?” Blue asked.

Y shook her head. “No. Not yet, at any rate. Some of the battles were very tough, so I plan on getting a bit stronger before tackling the Pokémon League.”

“I can help you with that,” Red said. “I’ve been waiting to see how stronger you’ve gotten.”

“Sure! If you’re willing to train me, I’ll give it everything I’ve got!” Y exclaimed, looking excited. But she suddenly faltered a bit. “… But not today. I still have quite a headache from all the seasickness.”

Red gave her a pat on the shoulder. “No worries. Today’s not the only day. It wouldn’t be fun if one side of a battle had to fight a headache at the same time. So rest up, Y. And I’ll see how strong you’ve gotten tomorrow.”

…

Half an hour later, the ship from Unova arrived, and again, Red and Blue watched as countless people poured out from the harbor. Blue lightly fanned herself with her foldable fan and waited to see the familiar figures.

Red bit into the popsicle he had bought from the nearby store. Of course, he had offered to buy one for Blue and Y as well, with only Y accepting the offer. Blue glanced at Y licking away on the popsicle and momentarily wished that she didn’t refuse the offer. Then again… she didn’t _really_ want one, so… eh…

“Oh!” Y said abruptly, squinting to get a better vision. “Ah-ha! Lovebirds spotted!” she said as she pointed at the entrance of the harbor.

Red and Blue looked ahead and saw Black and White exiting the harbor while holding hands.

“Lovebirds, huh?” Blue said with a short laugh. “I suppose it suits them.”

The two _lovebirds_ spotted the other Dex Holders and soon ran up to them. White waved as she ran close, still holding onto Black’s hand as he dragged their luggage with his other hand.

“Good to see you two,” Blue said once they got close. Her eyes flickered down to the joined hands. “Or are you pretty much one entity now?”

White looked down and realized that she was still holding onto Black’s hand, and quickly released it. “Ah! I… um…”

“Too late for that,” Y said with a grin. “You might as well keep holding hands from now on.”

White felt heat rushing up to her cheeks and tried to retaliate. “And are we supposed to believe that nothing happened between you and X in Kalos?” she asked. “I mean, you two did travel around Kalos again… all by yourselves.”

“Ha! Yeah right,” Y said with a huff. “Like that’ll ever happen.”

“I’m sure he’d love to hold your hand if you ever extended it,” White said, looking at her junior’s hand. “I mean, if… … Um… Y, what is that on your wrist?”

Y grinned, as if she was just waiting for her ask. “Oh, this?” she asked smugly as she raised her right hand. “It’s nothing, really. Just _all 8 Kalos Gym Badges_.”

“No way!” White exclaimed. “You beat all 8 Gyms already? Wow! You beat them much faster than Black!”

Y started to laugh and Black narrowed his eyes. “… Why bring me into this, Miss President?”

“Sorry. But it’s true! She beat the Gyms much faster than you. Even factoring out the whole Team Plasma thing…” White suddenly grinned a bit. “Y may be a stronger trainer than you, Black.”

Black’s eyes twitched. “Oh, we’ll see about that! Y, battle me right now!”

Y licked her popsicle. “No. I have a headache today. And tomorrow, Red promised to train me, so I won’t have time for you.”

“What?!” Black swiveled around to face Red. “Red! Train me right now!”

Red rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know if there’s time. I mean, the ship from Sinnoh is about to arrive. And once it does, I’d like to see Platinum’s new team.”

Black groaned as he realized that his _ranking_ was below Platinum _and_ Y. Platinum, he understood. But Y? … No way. He glared at Y, who was looking off into the distance while licking her popsicle. She sensed his gaze and looked over at him, only to stick her dyed tongue out at him before looking off once again.

Blue looked towards the harbor, realizing that the ship from Sinnoh had docked already as well. And Platinum was the first person out of the harbor. Most likely, the heiress had bought the most expensive ticket, which would’ve resulted in her disembarking first. Platinum immediately spotted the other Dex Holders and quickly made her way over.

Red and Y saw the heiress coming, as did White. But Black failed to notice, as he was looking the wrong direction and currently agitated from being taunted.

“You know, Y? It doesn’t matter how strong you’ve gotten… or you _think_ you’ve gotten. I’ve been training nonstop too. And you know what? I’m much stronger now than I’ve been when I took on the Unova Gyms. I’m probably stronger than Platinum at this point.”

White opened her mouth to try to say something, but couldn’t say anything. She could only watch as Platinum quietly moved to stand right behind Black, obviously not appreciating his comment.

“Really, Black?” she asked, her voice calm as the waters of Lake Verity.

Black jumped and felt a cold shiver down his spine. He slowly turned around and saw his senior standing right behind him with a rather cold looking expression. It was her normal expression, he knew, but her posture and lack of smile said otherwise.

“Would you like to _test_ your claims?” Platinum asked, her voice becoming as cold as the waters of Lake Acuity.

Black could tell that Platinum already had a Pokéball in hand. He slowly leaned towards White.

“… Miss President, what can you tell me about her team?” he whispered. “You said that she got some new Pokémon, right?”

White let out a short sigh. “Yes. And if Lady Platinum wanted to, she could turn your whole team into popsicles.”

Black blinked and looked over at Y, who licked her popsicle once again, but with a grin on her face. He leaned towards White again. “So… what should I do?”

“You _might_ want to apologize,” White whispered. “Just in case she decides to freeze _you_.”

Black gulped and in a blink of an eye, dropped to his knees and bowed to his Sinnoh senior. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

Platinum smiled at his overreaction, but turned her attention to Red and Blue. She gave them a polite bow. “Hello, senior Red. Senior Blue.”

Blue waved at her. “Hi, Platinum. Nice to see you again.”

“How’s the Eevee egg?” Red asked.

Platinum pressed a button on the Pokéball she was holding. For the sake of surprise, she had not told Red or Blue that the Eevee egg had hatched and then evolved, and she was going to reveal that information now.

Her Glaceon popped out of the Pokéball… and landed on top of Black, who was still bowing on his knees.

“Glaceon?” Blue said in surprise. “Oh, so it hatched and evolved already? Wow.”

Platinum smiled and gently pet her Glaceon. “Yes. And thanks to the advices from senior Gold, it has warmed up to me greatly.”

“But not anyone else,” Y said from the side. “Be careful. That thing likes to freeze hands of those that try to pet it.”

“I’m sure it just needs time to warm up to everyone else,” Blue said. ‘ _Just like its trainer…_ ’

“Well, now that everyone’s here,” Red began. “Platinum, let’s see how stronger you’ve gotten. We have some time before we need to get going, so let’s have a little practice battle.”

“Yes, senior. Of course,” Platinum said eagerly. “Come, Glaceon. Let us demonstrate our teamwork.”

The Glaceon nodded and hopped off of Black, who then finally raised himself off of the ground. The Glaceon didn’t even acknowledge him and just followed its trainer towards an appropriate empty ground for a small battle.

Black let out a long sigh and followed the group. He began to regret following White, as he realized that he was in the wrong group. Given what just happened, he realized that the _ranking_ of everyone here went as: Blue, Red, Platinum, _Platinum’s Glaceon_ , White, Y, and then himself all the way in the bottom. And he did not like it one bit.

…

Meanwhile, classified location, Kanto…

…

“We’ve been given the signal from the boss,” said the division leader to his three assistants. “We are to commence Project K3. But my recommendations for the project’s scale haven’t been accepted, so we didn’t get additional funding.” He walked up to the chalkboard and began writing down a list of items. “I believe that this project has no value if it’s not fully pursued. Which means, it comes down to us to procure the necessary resources for ourselves.”

“What exactly do we need?” asked one of the assistants.

“For one, we need additional funding,” said the division leader, writing it down on the board. “More the better. It doesn’t matter how we procure it, as long as we procure it. I don’t care if we have to win the damn lottery to get more money, but we need it. There’s only so much that cheap materials can do for us.”

“Easy enough,” said another assistant. “We can kidnap someone and demand ransom, rob a bank, or… steal lottery tickets, if no other opportunity presents itself.”

“Next up is something a bit more difficult. We need a sample of a certain machine interface. While it’s common knowledge that the Pokémon Rotom can enter and possess appliances, not a lot know that it can possess any specially designed machine, allowing it fully interface with all of its functions. We need to study that for K3.”

“We’ll have to gather everything we know about Rotom before we can proceed with that one,” said the assistant. “More unfortunately, Rotom is not native here in Kanto. So we’ll have to find it in another region.”

“Yes,” the division leader said with a nod. “But the biggest problem and the most important is the final missing piece. We need a volunteer. And not just any volunteer. We need a calm individual that’s also exceptionally brilliant. We can’t nab a random person off the streets and expect the project to work. We need to find the perfect candidate. And to do that, we will most likely need the personality bios files from the main server, which of course is inaccessible to us. So, I want each of you to handle one of the major requirements. There are also a plethora of other miscellaneous requirements, but I will handle those myself.”

“Understood, sir.”

“Good. And remember, this is the final attempt at making this work. There will not be a K4. So this is the very last chance we have of validating our years of work and research. So let’s make this work. Good hunting. Dismissed.”


	5. Loneliness

Chapter 2: Loneliness

August 10, Saffron City, Kanto, 1 pm…

“And… ah, here they are. C10 through 16,” Red said as he glanced at the seat numbers on the magnet train. “Well, technically C8 through 16.”

Blue looked at the 8 seats that Platinum had reserved, even though only 6 would be occupied this time. “I suppose the juniors should have the window seats. It’s not easy for them to ride the magnet train connecting Kanto and Johto.”

“All right!” Y exclaimed happily without raising her voice too much. “Sightseeing!”

Red and Blue stepped off to the side, letting the juniors take the window seats. Y rushed ahead first, but stopped abruptly before taking a seat.

“Something wrong?” Blue asked.

Y shook her head. “No, I just realized… Miss Platinum, you should pick first.”

“Oh? Thank you,” Platinum said with a smile. She soon picked the window seat, but facing away from the direction of the train.

Y took the seat on the opposite side of the table from her. Red sat next to Platinum, leaving Blue to sit next to Y, while Black and White took the window seats on the table on the other side of the aisle from the rest. Red set the “lunch bag” on the empty seat next to Black, and Blue set the miscellaneous supplies bag on the empty seat next to White, while the juniors put their luggage on the space provided overhead.

“Ooh, comfortable,” White commented as she leaned back into her seat. “But I’m starting to get hungry. When do we eat lunch?”

“Once the train starts moving, we’ll eat,” Blue said. “Since this isn’t on a direct path to Goldenrod City, it’s going to take a few hours. Once we arrive, we should have just enough time to reach Route 35 and set up camp before making dinner. So… Y, you should cut down on the snacks.”

Y took a sip of her slushie. “I’m almost done.”

“You don’t want to spoil your appetite,” Red said. “The packed lunch is _very_ good.”

Y nodded, and quickened her slurping speed, aiming to finish her slushie as fast as possible.

White chuckled a bit. “You can’t easily take candy from a child, right? Once they get a taste of sugar, they just get hyper attached to it.”

Y cast a quick glare at her senior. “You say something?”

“Just kidding,” White said with a smile. She glanced at her junior’s wrists, looking at the Mega Ring on the left wrist. “Huh. Why do you still have your Mega Ring on? You don’t have any Pokémon that can Mega Evolve at the moment. And given your other wrist _accessory_ , I’d imagine that having both on at the same time can be a bit… frustrating and confusing.”

Y glanced at her wrists. “Eh, not really. Once you get a Mega Ring and get used to it, you just don’t really notice it anymore. Besides, while I used to press the button on the Mega Ring on my left wrist quite often, I have no reason to do anything like that for the Badges on my right wrist, so it’s not confusing at all.”

“I suppose once you obtain your own Mega Ring, you will feel the same,” Platinum said. “You will still have your Xtransceiver, so you will have the Mega Ring on your other wrist.”

White glanced at the Xtransceiver on her wrist, and then at her other wrist. “Oh, I’d probably get confused so badly… I’m sure I’d end up calling someone on the Xtransceiver when I wanted to Mega Evolve something.” She laughed a bit. “Oh, wouldn’t that be amusing. Mega Evolve! … Oh whoops, I just called the VP.”

“Once you get used to it, it probably won’t happen,” Blue said. “At first though… yeah.”

“Still, even with the confusion at first, it’s definite worth it,” Red said.

“Absolutely,” Platinum agreed.

“Being able to use Mega Evolution significantly boosts your team’s overall battle proficiency,” Blue said. “Depending on circumstances, you can have your stronger Pokémon Mega Evolve to further boost its own power, or you can also have the weaker Pokémon Mega Evolve, which then allows your other team members to focus on coordinating attacks instead of supporting or defending. And in the event that you have more than one Pokémon capable of Mega Evolution, the possibilities increase even more.”

“Yeah. So Y, once your new Pokémon fully evolve and thus become capable of Mega Evolving, your team would be much stronger than your previous team,” Red said. “And you’d definitely be able to beat most of your seniors who don’t have Mega Evolution. Like Black.”

Black grumbled something and glanced over at Y, who was grinning triumphantly. He could tell that she was absolutely delighted to hear it. She looked over at him and smiled before taking a slow slurp of her slushie.

“Black, White, you two should aim to get a Mega Ring of your own,” Platinum suggested.

“But we don’t have any Pokémon that can Mega Evolve, though,” White said.

“While I do not know about Black, surely you will be able to change some of your Pokémon,” Platinum said. “You have once said that you have captured some of your Pokémon due to their potential in the BW Agency. Which means you will be able to capture some more Pokémon for a similar purpose.”

Y nodded. “Yeah. Think about the possible uses in the Pokéstar Studios. Oh no, the hero’s Pokémon is going down! But suddenly, BAM! Mega Evolution to turn the tide! Or… the villain could use Mega Evolution to be an even bigger threat. And imagine if the villain could somehow Mega Evolve multiple Pokémon at once!”

White thought about the potential uses for a brief moment. “… Good idea. I guess it could work. But maybe I should do a bit of a test first. Like… Lady Platinum, maybe I can borrow your Lopunny and Altaria for the protagonist role, and Y, I can borrow your eventual Salamence and Garchomp for a villain role.”

“Why are my Pokémon going to be villains?” Y asked with a frown.

“Think about it. A Garchomp snarling in anger while swinging its razor sharp claws, destroying everything in its path…” White began. “… Definitely more of a villainy vibe.”

“Especially with the dual reaper blades upon Mega Evolving,” Blue added. “Although I think a Hydreigon would be best suited for a villain role than Garchomp or Salamence, even if it doesn’t have a Mega Evolution yet. The Dark typing certainly adds to that.”

Y pouted a bit. “No way. Saza is too adorable for a villain role.”

Black frowned. “… Adorable?” He checked his Pokédex. “… The Deino evolution line goes from being an Irate Pokémon, to a Hostile Pokémon, to finally a Brutal Pokémon. And you say that it’s _adorable_? I’m pretty sure it’s closer to being _atrocious_.”

“No!” Y reached into her bag and sent out her Zweilous. “Check it for yourself.”

The Zweilous landed on the table and sniffed at the air. It soon caught Y’s scent and happily turned towards her while wagging its tail. Y smiled and reached out to pet it. The two heads of the Zweilous both rushed towards the incoming hand, as if competing to get petted first.

“See?” Y said as her Zweilous leaned into her, as if it was trying to either embrace her, or prompting her to embrace it. “Look how cute it is!”

“… Maybe,” White said, walking over to approach the Zweilous. She slowly reached out towards it with her hand. “Easy, Saza…”

The Zweilous sniffed at the air and caught an unfamiliar scent approaching. Both of its heads quickly turned to face the incoming hand, and the closest head quickly chomped at the air while the other head snarled viciously. White quickly pulled her hand back and stumbled backwards.

“Okay, okay!” she cried out once she was out of its biting range.

Platinum reached out towards the Zweilous next, but after sending out her Glaceon first. The Hostile Pokémon caught her scent as well, and snarled again. Platinum didn’t try to pet it, however, and kept her distance. The Zweilous acted first, almost leaping towards the heiress to chase her away. Platinum pulled back as her Glaceon flash-froze a thin wall between its trainer and the charging Zweilous. The Hostile Pokémon hit the ice barrier and stumbled backwards, surprised by the sudden collision. Realizing that an Ice type Pokémon was out in the vicinity, the Zweilous let out a whimper and pulled back towards Y, seeking protection.

Y gently embraced her Zweilous as Platinum’s Glaceon hissed angrily. She let out a short sigh. “Saza’s in a bad mood today, I think. It usually doesn’t do that.”

“Uh-huh, sure,” Black said from the side. “It sure looked to be in a good mood when it first went to you.”

“Seriously, it never did this before,” Y argued. “Maybe it just needs to get used to the surroundings.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Blue said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “It’s in their nature. Once it evolves and gains sight, it’ll likely recognize its trainer’s friends and allies.”

Black checked his Pokédex again. “I don’t know about that. Apparently Hydreigon will attack anything that moves. It _responds_ to movement by attacking. And I’m sure a Dragon Pulse isn’t the best way of saying hello.”

Y gently petted her Zweilous. “Maybe the ones in the wild would do that. But I’m sure Saza will be just nice and fine.” She suddenly shivered a bit, as the temperature seemed to have dropped quite significantly. She then realized that Platinum’s Glaceon was still glaring at her. “Um… Miss Platinum, could you please ease your Glaceon?”

Platinum placed her hand on her Glaceon’s back. The Glaceon looked at its trainer, and upon seeing her warm smile, it dropped its hostility and stopped emitting chill from its body.

“Well, at the very least, if Y’s Dragon type Pokémon won’t restrain their destructive urges, then Platinum’s Ice type Pokémon can force them to calm down,” Red said.

Y clenched her teeth but didn’t say anything. She simply looked at her Zweilous, and sincerely hoped that it would not attack anything on sight upon evolution.

…

A couple of hours later…

…

Blue slowly yawned as she woke up from her sleep. Realizing that she had dozed off shortly after lunch, she quickly blinked to shake away the sleepiness as fast as she could. Hopefully, the juniors didn’t need her in the time she was asleep. That would be rather embarrassing.

She glanced to her right, and saw Y staring out the window, occasionally taking pictures as the train sped past various sights.

Ahead of her, Red and Platinum were both fast asleep. Red had an extremely content look on his face as he lightly snored. Given the empty containers stacked on the table right in front of him, he had obviously eaten some more of the packed lunch after finishing his share.

To his left, Platinum slept while leaning against something fluffy and white. It took Blue a few seconds to realize that it was the girl’s newly captured Swablu that had evolved into Altaria. The Altaria had cuddled up between its trainer and the train window, acting as an extremely soft pillow. One of its cottony wings had wrapped over Platinum’s shoulder, acting as a small blanket as well. It had then fallen asleep while leaning into Platinum’s soft hat, using it as its own pillow.

Platinum’s Glaceon was also sleeping in its trainer’s embrace. It had taken residence in the gap between its trainer and the table, held securely in her arms while comfortably resting its head on her chest.

Platinum smiled contently as she slept, enjoying the warmth provided by her Altaria and the coolness of her Glaceon in her embrace.

“Aww, isn’t that cute…” Blue muttered with a smile.

Y heard her and looked over and grinned as she saw Platinum and her two Pokémon as well. “This is one for the albums…” she whispered as she took a photo of the scene with her camera. She glanced over at the other side of the train and grinned again as she saw Black and White looking out the window while holding hands. “Ooh, another one for the albums…”

Blue looked over at the two Unova Dex Holders and smiled. “They sure suit each other nicely…” she said quietly.

“I wonder why White keeps denying it,” Y said in a whisper. “Surely she doesn’t think that we haven’t noticed yet.”

“Maybe she’s just embarrassed to openly admit it,” Blue suggested. “Like Ruby and Sapphire. Mostly Ruby, I guess. Everyone knows it and can see it, and they know that too. But they just won’t say it.”

Y briefly contemplated about her own situation before a thought occurred. “What about you? Do you have anyone?”

Blue momentarily paused from the sudden question. She quickly realized that she had sort of walked right into such a question given the topic of conversation. Her eyes briefly flicked towards Red before she quickly looked over at Y.

“Not really, no,” she lied, keeping as straight of a face as she could manage.

Y frowned a little as she had seen the brief motion in her senior’s eyes. “Something tells me that’s not entirely true,” she said, casting a glance at Red. “Especially since in your case-”

“I mean it, Y,” Blue said hastily, raising her voice.

Y jumped in surprise at the sudden yell. She blinked repeatedly as she wondered why her senior had reacted so abruptly.

Blue realized that she had raised her voice a bit too much. Now Black and White were looking over at her, and Red and Platinum had woken up from their sleep. She quickly lightened her expression. “Sorry.”

“What’s going on?” White asked.

Y momentarily cast a glance at Red before she devised a story. “I just took a picture of a certain couple holding hands in full view of everyone,” she answered. She showed the last saved picture on her camera to White and smiled. “And I was going to try to extort you for it, but… Blue yelled at me to not do that.”

“Give me that!” White said, trying to snatch away Y’s camera.

Y pulled her hands back and began to laugh. Blue watched her for a moment before she relaxed, mentally thanking the Kalos Dex Holder for lying on her behalf.

“Yelled?” Red asked.

Blue gave him an apologetic smile. “I just got reminded of my past. You know, extortion and all that money stuff.”

“It’s not like Y intended to remind you of that,” Red said. “She didn’t even know you when you had to do that.”

“I know,” Blue said with a nod. She gently put a hand on Y’s shoulder. “Sorry for raising my voice.”

“It’s okay,” Y said with a smile, but staring deeply into her eyes.

Blue looked into her junior’s eyes as well and clenched her teeth a bit. … Y was probably going to bring this up when they were alone. … Until then, Blue would have to come up with an acceptable answer…

…

Several hours later, Route 35, Johto, 7 pm…

…

Black let out a sigh of relief as he finished setting up the second tent. It was decided that the male Dex Holders would share one tent while the female Dex Holders shared the other one. And since there were four female Dex Holders as opposed to two male, the girls ended up with the bigger tent. And that tent was rather difficult to set up by himself.

Platinum, White, and Y worked together to set up the smaller tent (though they spent more time chatting than anything else), while Red and Blue set up campfires and other necessary preparations to make dinner. … Which then left Black to set up the bigger tent all by himself.

He looked around the campsite and saw White sitting by the campfire, busy preparing dinner while Platinum occasionally told her what to do. Red and Blue were setting up the dishes on the makeshift dinner table, and Y was staring blankly at the slowly darkening sky. Since it was summer, the sun was going to set at least an hour from now, which meant that the Dex Holders could eat dinner without having to worry about illumination.

Black stood up straight and walked towards Y. Now that she was alone, he had something important to ask her.

“Hey, Y,” he said once he was close enough.

Y looked over at him with her lollipop still in her mouth. “Hm? What is it?”

“Come over here a minute. I need to talk…” Black frowned a bit. “… Where’d you get a lollipop?”

“Red bought some for me,” Y answered. “Want one?”

“But we’re going to be eating dinner in a few minutes.”

“Yeah, but White is the one making dinner,” Y said. “Have you ever had her make food for you?”

Black momentarily thought about all the times he had lunch or dinner with White. “… No.”

Y shuddered. “I’d rather spoil my appetite.”

Black glanced over at the fireplace, where White was busy preparing dinner. “… Is it really that bad?”

“Horrendous. Way worse than me. I would’ve preferred if Blue or Miss Platinum made dinner since they’re very good at cooking, but White… no.”

Black groaned a bit before making a decision. “Okay. Can you spare a lollipop?”

Y rummaged through her bag for a bit before taking out the candy. “Here’s an orange flavored one.”

“Thanks. Were there any other options?”

“I only had a few left. I’m saving the strawberry one for Miss Platinum since she _loves_ strawberries. And the one I’m eating is grape flavored.”

“Okay.” Black quickly removed the plastic wrap off of the lollipop and stuck the candy in his mouth. “Anyways. I needed to talk to you for a minute.”

“Okay. Go ahead.”

Black led Y behind a tent and took a moment to glance around, making sure that no one else was near.

Y did the same, despite not understanding why. She briefly took her lollipop out of her mouth. “So… why are we here, and what’s with all the secrecy?”

Black glanced at White in the distance, preparing dinner under Platinum’s guidance… and messing up over and over. “You know that Miss President’s birthday is coming up in a couple of months, right?”

Y nodded. “Yeah. And what about it?” She suddenly realized something and grinned. “Oh. I see. Thinking of a secret gift, are you?”

“Sort of,” Black said sheepishly. “I already bought it. I just don’t know if she’d like it.”

“What is it? You don’t have it on you, do you?”

“No. I left it back home in Unova,” Black said. “Seems pretty silly to take it with me to another region when her birthday is still quite a while away. I only bought it already so I wouldn’t forget, and have plenty of time to think about what to say.” Black leaned in and whispered to her ear. “So that’s what I got her.”

Y grinned again. “Aww, that’s so sweet! She’d love it!”

“Keep your voice down,” Black said, casting another glance over the tent. “I don’t want Miss President to know yet.”

“Weird thing to hear, coming from you,” Y said amusedly. “But… why did you tell me this, anyways?”

“I needed an opinion from someone close to Miss President. Preferably you or Platinum,” Black said. “But… I don’t think Platinum likes me all too well.”

Y shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe it’s because you’re the only junior who calls her by name only.”

“What does X call her?”

“… Nothing,” Y answered after a moment of thought. “He never talks about her, and if he absolutely must, he does everything he can to not say her name.”

“Huh. … Anyways. I also want you to help me with picking the right birthday card. And message.”

“Have any ideas?”

Black blushed in embarrassment a bit. “Well, there was a card that said: _This is the most special card in the whole world because…_ And I was going to write: _This is the card meant for you._ … Thoughts?”

Y clamped a hand over her mouth as she began to giggle uncontrollably. “That’s so… sweet and… corny!”

“So… is that a good thing?”

Y shuddered but nodded. “I think it’s just fine. I don’t know where exactly you learned to be that mushy, but… I think you got it right on.” She glanced over at White frantically stirring as thick smoke began to billow from the cooking pot. “… Ugh. Looks like Miss Platinum and Blue would have to try to salvage the mess that’s known as our dinner. And I’ll probably have to help.” She glanced at Black and smiled. “But don’t worry. I’ll keep your mushy secret.”

…

3 hours later…

…

Blue exited the “changing room” created by her Ditto, now dressed in her night clothes. By now, all the other Dex Holders were ready to sleep. Red and Black were in the small tent set up for them, most likely discussing battle strategies or whatever guys liked to talk about. And now, Blue was going to crawl into the large tent set up for the girls, about to engage in deep, meaningful, and lengthy conversations… apparently known as “girl talk”.

Blue crawled into the large tent as her Ditto morphed back into normal and slimed away somewhere to cuddle up to something _as_ something, so that it could sleep in peace. Blue zipped up the tent entrance shut and turned to face the other three female Dex Holders. They were all dressed in their night clothes as well, hair loosened, and resting in their sleeping bags.

Y stretched her limbs and let out a long yawn. Unlike the others, she had to deal with seasickness earlier that day, so she was very eager to just go to sleep. White was lying on her side while checking her Xtransceiver, looking to see if she had gotten any messages from her two companies that required her immediate attention. And Platinum was seated upright, reading one of the handful of books she had brought from the Berlitz Mansion library. While for _ordinary_ people, a single book was enough for many days, but for Platinum, a single book only provided a few minutes’ worth of a distraction, given how fast she could read. Even as Blue got settled in her sleeping bag, Platinum had flipped the page at least a dozen times.

“So, today’s been sure enjoyable, right?” Blue asked with a smile.

Platinum stuck a bookmark in between the current pages of her book and looked up at her senior. “Yes. Today has been absolutely fantastic, senior.”

“Yeah. A perfect vacation,” Y said. “… Except for the dinner.”

“Oh, come on. It’s not my fault!” White argued. “Why did the ingredients stick to the pot so quickly? I didn’t have any time before it started burning.”

“The pot was too heated,” Blue said. “You only have a limited amount of time when the pot is at the perfect temperature. If it’s too hot, things will burn.”

“You need more experience in cooking,” Platinum said as well. “Perhaps one day, you will become very proficient. Until then, I recommend you practice with Black.”

“Is that how you got so good?” Y asked.

“Yes. Diamond has guided me for many, many hours,” Platinum said. “At first, I was terrible. I had no experience in cooking. But with Diamond’s help, I was able to learn quickly.”

“Well, Black isn’t a chef, so… that won’t help me much,” White said with a sigh.

“Maybe you two can learn together,” Y said. “Hand in hand.”

White groaned and put a hand over her face in embarrassment.

“There is no reason to be embarrassed,” Platinum said with a warm smile.

“Yeah. I mean, everyone already knows,” Y said teasingly. “You’re like Ruby and Sapphire!”

Blue momentarily smiled at the thought about Ruby and Sapphire before she suddenly pulled back in surprise. She quickly looked at Y, who was turning to look over at her now.

‘ _Is she going to bring that up now?_ ’ she thought, clenching her teeth.

“Blue, what about-” Y began, but Blue didn’t let her.

She let out a long yawn and stretched her arms. “Oh, wow. I’m just so sleepy now. … I had to wake up early in the morning to prepare lunch.”

Y blinked a few times before slightly narrowing her eyes. “… I’m really sleepy too. Unlike most everyone else, I didn’t take a nap during the train ride. _And_ I was seasick during the entire trip here, so I didn’t get much rest either.”

Platinum took off her glasses. “I suppose we should go to sleep now. I expect that we will have an eventful day tomorrow as well, so more rest we get the better.”

“Who’s going to be making breakfast?” White asked.

“Not you,” Y said quickly. “Red is apparently terrible at cooking, and I’m guessing that Black isn’t good either. And since Blue made the delicious lunch for us… I guess it’d be up to me and Miss Platinum. … Is that okay, Miss Platinum?”

Platinum nodded. “Certainly. I will gladly contribute to making breakfast for everyone.”

“Great! I look forward to it,” Y said happily. “So… let’s sleep! Good night, everyone.”

Platinum gave Blue a polite bow. “Good night, senior Blue.”

Blue nodded. “Good night. You too, White.”

“Good night.”

Blue shut off the lantern illuminating the interior of the tent and lied down in her sleeping bag. She let out a long quiet sigh, glad that she had stopped Y’s attempts to lead her into _that_ conversation. … She wasn’t ready for it. And she must _never_ explore that thought either.

…

For a while, Blue lay in silence as her juniors slowly drifted off to sleep. Y fell asleep first, as she had a tiring day thus far. White was next, though she had taken another looking at her Xtransceiver, in case something had happened to her companies since the last time she checked her email less than 30 minutes ago. Eventually, satisfied that nothing demanded her attention, she shut off her Xtransceiver and drifted to sleep.

Platinum remained awake for much longer than her two juniors, as she still wasn’t accustomed to sleeping in something that wasn’t a super expensive bed. And since she had taken a nap on the train (thanks to the comforting embrace of her Altaria), she wasn’t _that_ sleepy either. She tossed and turned every now and then for a long while before finally falling asleep.

Now everything in the tent fell silent. Other than three sets of rhythmic breaths, there was no sound whatsoever. Blue silently sighed and closed her eyes. She proceeded to clear her mind of all thoughts so that she could sleep as well.

… But for some reason, she didn’t fall asleep. Something felt… off. She felt as if there was some mandatory condition of sleep that wasn’t being met. She rolled onto her side, trying to see if changing positions was more comfortable. … It didn’t change anything. Instead, she started to feel cold. She curled up into a ball, rubbing her arms to warm herself up.

… Why was it cold? Sure, it was night time, but… it was still summer. She was in a tent shared by _three_ others, and she was in a good quality sleeping bag. There was no reason for her to feel this cold and… empty.

And things were _too_ quiet. Platinum, White, and Y didn’t make much sound while asleep. They didn’t toss and turn mid-sleep, nor did they snore. Blue frowned and tried to avoid focusing on the silence. Being distracted by a noticeable lack of sound was… weird. How was lack of sound bothering her this much?

Blue suddenly opened her eyes with a slight gasp, as the reason for her discomfort struck abruptly struck her.

… Red wasn’t sleeping right next to her.

… For a few months now, Blue had been sleeping next to Red on his bed, and she was now used to his presence. Red lightly snored in his sleep, and tossed and turned every now and then. And his presence itself had provided Blue the warmth that lulled her into sleep. She had often found herself with her back pressed to Red’s, enjoying the warmth. His occasional movements gave her the impression that she was not alone. Someone was with her, and _very_ close to her too.

But right now, here she was, trying to sleep by herself. … And it wasn’t working. She felt so… alone. The comforting warmth wasn’t there anymore, nor were the reassuring snores or movements. Blue silently groaned and put her hands over her eyes. … Even her subconscious _needed_ Red…

… But she could not tell him that. She _must_ not tell him either. … This was an internal struggle that she could not afford to show. And it was very difficult.

Sooner or later, Platinum and White would notice it, as Y has already. And the internal struggle would become much, _much_ more difficult.


	6. Please Confess

Chapter 3: Please Confess

August 11, Route 35, Johto, 7 am…

Platinum slowly opened her eyes as she woke up from her sleep. She could hear someone whispering in the vicinity and she groggily felt around her surroundings for her Pokétch to check for the time. She squinted to see the digital numbers clearly, and noticed that it was only 7 am. She’d prefer to wake up at around 8, or maybe even 8:30.

“Oh, Lady Platinum, are you awake?” came a familiar voice from very close.

Platinum blinked a few times momentarily and soon remembered what was happening. She was currently in a tent shared by three others, and it seemed that White was already awake, and it was probably her who had been whispering moments ago.

Platinum felt around again for her glasses and slowly sat up. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and then put her glasses on so that she could see her junior clearly. “Yes. I am awake. … Though I would have preferred to get another hour of sleep.” She now noticed that Y was also awake, but not Blue.

“Good morning, Miss Platinum,” Y said quietly with a friendly smile.

“Good morning.” Platinum let out a short yawn. “It is still early in the morning. When do you normally wake up?”

“Around 6,” White answered. “On most days, anyways. So even during a vacation like this, I just wake up early automatically.”

“And I usually wake up around 8. I only woke up early today because _someone_ was bored,” Y said grumpily.

“Sorry,” White said with a slight laugh. “But there was nothing for me to do, and I didn’t want to wake up Lady Platinum so early.”

“Then read a book!” Y argued.

“I don’t take books with me!” White argued as well. “And I didn’t want to borrow Lady Platinum’s book without asking her first.”

“White, Y, keep your voices down, please,” Platinum warned, casting a glance at Blue, who was still asleep.

White and Y quickly clamped their hands over their mouths and looked over at Blue.

The Kanto Dex Holder remained asleep. She mumbled something and lightly tossed and turned. Her mumbles were incomprehensible except for one word, and that sounded awfully like “Red”.

Y suddenly perked up and thought intently for a few seconds before she snapped her fingers. She quickly inched her way towards Platinum and dragged White with her, so that they could talk without waking up Blue.

“I actually wanted to discuss this with you,” Y said in a whisper. “… Yesterday, on the train, I noticed that Blue sort of… _likes_ Red a lot. And it makes sense too. But for some reason, she’s really opposed to the idea. I tried to talk to her about it, but she keeps changing the topic before I can even start.”

“Maybe she’s just embarrassed?” White suggested.

Y shook her head. “No. She seemed more… afraid, than anything else. She was really quick to… well… shut me up, and I don’t think that was because of embarrassment.”

Platinum frowned as she recalled all the times she had seen Blue with Red. … She never would’ve thought that Blue would be _afraid_ of being in a relationship with him…

“I wonder why she’d be afraid,” White muttered. “So then someone is going to have to talk to her and find out why, and maybe even convince her that there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“Miss Platinum,” Y began, interrupting the heiress out of her thoughts. “You’re closer to both Red and Blue than either of us. Could you maybe talk to her? Ordinarily, I’d say that this is none of our business, but… I just feel that something might be off.”

Platinum sighed. “You are correct. This is none of our business. If senior Blue wishes to not divulge her feelings, we should not intervene.”

“But Lady Platinum,” White argued. “Nothing’s going to happen if we don’t do anything. Clearly Blue needs out support and maybe even our help with her feelings. And as her friends and juniors, we should help her out.”

“Are we truly helping her?” Platinum asked calmly. “If senior Blue does not wish to discuss this topic, we are being a nuisance and putting her in a _very_ uncomfortable position. We must not intervene in her personal affairs.”

“Miss Platinum, Blue seems to be in a bit of a stalemate,” Y argued as well. “And if she’s really afraid for some reason, then she’ll continue to emotionally suffer until this gets resolved. Are we just going to sit by while she suffers endlessly?”

Platinum was about to respond when she noticed that Blue was starting to sit up. “Ah, senior Blue!”

“Morning,” Blue said rather groggily. She covered her mouth with a hand and let out a long yawn. “What are you guys talking about?” she asked as she rubbed her eyes. “I woke up because I kept hearing my name…”

White and Y glanced at each other as Blue stretched her arms. Platinum saw her two juniors and realized what was going to happen. They were going to bring up that topic immediately, since she wasn’t willing to do it for them. … But were they close enough to Blue to be able to bring up such a topic without risking her getting upset? … No…

“Blue, we just wanted-” White began, but Platinum interrupted her.

“White, Y, would you two begin working on the breakfast?” she asked firmly. “… Senior Blue, I… wish to ask you something… important.”

White and Y looked at Platinum in surprise, but soon nodded and left the tent. Y momentarily paused before exiting, as she suddenly realized that White was now involved with making food once again.

Now that they were alone, Platinum let out a long sigh while Blue looked at her curiously.

“So, Platinum,” she began. “What did you want to ask me?”

Platinum visibly hesitated, but she knew that there was no turning back anymore. “Senior, please forgive me for my insolence and candor, but… do you have feelings for senior Red?”

Blue almost jumped in surprise. She blinked a few times in rapid succession as she thought of an answer.

“Please be honest, senior. I only wish to assist you.”

Blue cast a quick glance at the tent entrance, as she immediately realized that Y had revealed her _big discovery_ to the others already. She bit her lower lip as she wondered if the Kalos Dex Holder had told Red already. … She sincerely hoped that he didn’t know yet…

Platinum caught onto her concern. “Senior Red is unaware of this. And if you wish, _we_ will not inform him, either.”

Blue narrowed her eyes as she looked at her junior. Platinum slightly averted her gaze, avoiding eye contact, as she wasn’t proud of having this conversation. Blue momentarily considered in ending this conversation immediately and maybe even tell Platinum to basically mind her own business, but eventually sighed and lowered her head.

“… Yeah… I do like him…” she mumbled, just loud enough for her junior to hear. She couldn’t bring herself to be rude to Platinum.

Platinum put up a warm smile to try to make her feel better. “How long have you liked him?”

Blue smiled a bit as well. “I guess it’s been over 10 years now…”

“And you have not informed him yet?” Platinum asked in surprise.

“No,” Blue said quickly. “I don’t want him to know, ever.”

Platinum observed her senior’s expression and realized that Y’s observation was correct. Blue _was_ afraid. … But why? “… May I ask why you do not wish him to know?”

“… You know how nice Red is,” Blue began quietly. “… You know that he deserves the best. … And I’m just not that. He deserves someone far better than me.”

“Senior, you are a wonderful person,” Platinum argued. “Senior Red would-”

Blue held up a hand. “Listen. You know my past. You know what I’ve had to deal with my whole life. And you’d know that Red has been the _one_ source of light in my dark life. … I don’t want to lose that, ever. There is a chance that he will not like me in the same way that I like him. And there is a chance that if I tell him how I feel, he will be very uncomfortable around me. And if that happens, things will never be the same between us. I will _never_ risk it.”

“But senior,” Platinum argued. “Senior Red has known you for over a decade. He has been a close friend to you. Why would he not like you? He has invited you to live in his home, and he-”

“That’s another reason why I can’t tell him,” Blue said with a sigh. “If things are uncomfortable between us, I can’t stay there anymore. Then I have nowhere else to go.”

“But if senior Red had invited you to live with him… does that not mean that he likes you as well?”

“Maybe,” Blue said dejectedly. “But… that’s yet another reason… … Red has been the one source of light in my dark life, but… I can’t be that one darkness in his bright life. Even if he loves me too, I can’t allow my bad luck and dark life to harm him. If I’m just living with him as a friend, I can pretend to be cheerful and happy for him. But for our relationship to be anything more, we’ll have to let each other into our lives. And if there’s a chance that my bad luck and dark life will hurt him, I cannot allow it, ever. I will not take that risk.” She let out a long sigh and gave Platinum a bitter smile. “… I’ve been thinking about this for a _long_ time, Platinum. And I get to the same conclusion every time.”

Platinum frowned as she thought of the logic behind Blue’s words. There were two choices for Blue: to confess, or not. If she didn’t confess, nothing happens and things remain the same. And right now, she was pretty happy. But if she confessed, there were two outcomes: Red could like her as well, or he would not. If he did not like her, then things would be awkward and uncomfortable between them, and Blue did not want that. But even if he did like her, she was afraid that her life would negatively affect him, and she did not want that. So in her perspective, the best course of action was to not say anything.

Platinum didn’t like how Blue kept thinking of the worst possible outcome, but she could understand her concerns. Blue was currently happy with her life, or as happy as she had ever been. She would not want to risk a change for the worst.

“I understand, senior,” she said quietly. “But I do not agree. … Please forgive me again for my insolence and candor, but… please trust me on this. I believe that you should confess to senior Red. I honestly believe that senior Red likes you as well, which only leaves one concern for you, which is your fear that you will negatively affect him.” Platinum momentarily paused as she organized her thoughts. “Firstly, I do not agree with your logic that you will bring bad luck to him. But for the sake of argument, let us suppose that you will bring bad luck. I question which would hurt senior Red more: sharing the burden with you, or knowing that you chose to bear the burden all by yourself.” Platinum smiled a bit as she suddenly remembered her friends. “… Diamond and Pearl have taught me about friendship. Friends share both their joy and their burdens amongst each other. They share their joy so their friends can experience it as well, and they share their burden so their friends can help them overcome it. … Senior Red is one of your closest friends, if not the absolute closest. It will hurt him more to know that you are choosing to not share your burden with him.”

Blue remained silent for a long while as she thought about her junior’s words. “… So, if you’re right… then my only concern is if he doesn’t like me the way I like him.”

“Yes. And I am certain that he likes you as well,” Platinum said with a smile of relief. “So please confess to him, senior.”

Blue let out a long sigh. “… Okay. … I’ll… tell him. … Thanks, Platinum.”

“Thank you for trusting me, senior.”

“… But I won’t tell him now. I… I’m not ready. But trust me when I say this: I _will_ tell him one day. Just… not now.”

“I understand.” She gave her a polite bow. “And I apologize for-”

Blue waved a hand. “It’s fine. … I didn’t expect _you_ to bring this up. I thought Y was going to, but… not you.” She took a deep breath and took a moment to manage her expression. “Come on, Platinum. We have White working on breakfast now. So let’s go out there and take over before she ruins this meal too.”

…

Couple of hours later, the 6 Dex Holders finished with the salvaged breakfast, and were preparing to move out again. White and Y were busy cleaning the dishes, and Red and Black were busy dismantling the built tents, leaving Blue and Platinum alone to their thoughts.

Blue leaned against a tree and stared into the horizon with her arms crossed. She occasionally glanced over at Red, thinking deeply about what Platinum had said. Every now and then, she got the courage to walk up to him and confess her feelings. But within a couple of seconds, the courage vanished.

‘ _Maybe I’ll wait until we return home,_ ’ she thought with a sigh. ‘ _I just… can’t risk ruining this vacation._ ’

Red finished packing up a tent and looked around to see what everyone was doing. Upon spotting Blue and her rather serious expression, he frowned and walked over.

“Hey, Blue,” he began stopping right in front of her. “You okay?”

Blue blinked a few times and snapped out of her thoughts. “Ah! Y – Yeah, I’m okay. Just… thinking.”

“You seemed kind of sad about something,” Red noted. “Is something bothering you?”

Blue smiled and shook her head. “No. It’s nothing, really.” She slowly rubbed her arm out of embarrassment. “I guess I just… didn’t sleep so well last night.”

“Why not?” Red asked, keeping his warm smile. “The three juniors giving you trouble?”

“No, but… I guess… I’ve been sleeping on a bed right next to you for so long, you know?” Blue mumbled timidly, carefully choosing her words. “And suddenly, being in a sleeping bag like that… it’s a bit of a sudden change.”

Red chuckled. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I didn’t get a good night’s sleep, either.”

Blue perked up a bit. “Oh? You too?”

“Yeah. For me, Black was sleeping in the same tent. And let me tell you, that dude is as loud in his sleep as he is awake.”

“Oh yeah, that must’ve been rough,” Blue said with a short laugh.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait until we get home to have some good sleep.”

Blue’s cheeks flushed red for a bit and she quickly lowered her head. “I – I’m looking forward to it…” she mumbled, hoping that he wouldn’t catch onto the awkwardness.

Red just gave her a nod and a smile and stood next to her for a bit before heading back to help Black pack up the bigger tent. Blue exhaled the breath she had been holding. Okay… she had gotten quite close there, perhaps close enough to gauge Red’s reaction. So far so good. Red hadn’t reacted negatively to her awkward comment, and was still so unbelievably sweet to her.

Blue put her hands over her cheeks and tried to suppress the blush. … Maybe Platinum was right. She doesn’t have anything to fear, after all. … She still felt nervous, though. Throughout her life, if there was one lesson she learned the hard way was that happiness didn’t last long before something terrible happened.

But maybe this was the opportunity for her to change her pessimistic tendencies. Just like how meeting Red was the turning point for her life where she was finally able to escape her dark life, maybe confessing to Red and being in a relationship with him could be another turning point for her, where she would finally start looking forward to what was ahead of her.

… Maybe her luck was going to change for the better.

…

Platinum finished feeding her Glaceon and Altaria and looked up. She could see Red and Blue talking, and did her best to gauge their reactions from afar. So far, everything seemed to be good.

Platinum let out a sigh of relief. Though she hated how she had to intervene with a very personal matter, she was glad that she was able to convince Blue to confess to Red, even if she wasn’t going to do it any time soon.

Still, she’d prefer to not get involved with such personal topics from now on, unless the other person initiated the conversation.

Platinum left her Pokémon to eat and walked over towards White and Y, who had just finished cleaning the dishes.

“Ah, all done!” Y exclaimed, stretching her arms.

“Well done,” Platinum said, examining the sparkling dishes.

White glanced over at Blue before looking at Platinum. “So… how’d it go? I couldn’t ask before, since… everyone was there.”

“I have convinced her to confess to senior Red,” Platinum answered quietly. “But she will do so when she is ready. And until then, we should remain quiet. And please refrain from intervening in personal matters. I had to do it this time because you two were about to, and I was afraid that senior Blue would have gotten upset.” She slightly narrowed her eyes, making her two juniors flinch. “And she would have as well. _Fortunately_ , she is not upset. So do not tempt her, please.”

“Are you… upset at us?” Y asked nervously.

Platinum stared at her two juniors with unblinking eyes for a while, making them more and more nervous. Platinum’s Glaceon seemed to have sensed its trainer’s rising ire and walked over.

White and Y glanced down and saw the water drops on the cleaned dishes beginning to freeze, and shivered. Platinum watched their expressions for a while in amusement before lightening her expression.

“No, I am not upset at you,” she said as she crouched and gently pet her Glaceon. She glared at her juniors for a brief moment. “But I will be if this happens again. Am I understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,” White and Y said in unison.

Platinum giggled a bit. “Oh, do not be so afraid. I was merely-” she trailed off as she realized her Pokégear was vibrating as it received a call. “Oh? Excuse me for a moment.” She walked away to answer the call, leaving White and Y to sigh in relief. Platinum’s Glaceon watched them for a second before coughing up a ball of ice and wandered off somewhere.

“Hello?” Platinum said, answering the call.

“Hi, Lady!” came a very familiar voice from the other side.

Platinum’s expression instantly brightened.”Ah! Diamond!”

“It’s great to hear from you again,” he said cheerfully.

“Likewise, Diamond,” Platinum said happily. “I am sorry for not calling you sooner.”

“It’s okay, Lady. And oh, I just wanted to let you know and Pearl and I are almost finished with our business here in the Johto Battle Frontier, and soon we’re going to be ready to meet up with you.”

“Oh, that is fantastic!” Platinum exclaimed. “We are currently in Route 35, north of Goldenrod City. Where should we meet up?”

“We’re still in the Battle Frontier. So I guess we’ll meet you in Ecruteak City?”

“Understood. Please keep me updated on your positions. Since we are riding the Johto-wide magnet train, we will be able to reach Ecruteak City very quickly. So please tell me when you are close to Ecruteak.”

“Will do! We’ll see you soon, Lady!”

Platinum soon hung up and smiled brightly as she put her Pokégear away. Now that her friends were coming, the tour of Johto was going to be even better! Especially with Diamond…

The heiress licked her lips, as she suddenly thought about his delicious cooking. She giggled happily and was about to head back to the others when she felt something landing on her head. She looked up and noticed that her Altaria had come to perch on top of her head again. Platinum smiled brightly and reached up to pet its soft wings.

“Good news, Altaria,” she said happily. “Diamond and Pearl are coming. Come, we should tell the others so we can reunite with them as fast as possible!”

…

Meanwhile, classified location, Kanto…

…

The division leader gathered his team for the morning meeting. And he was _excited_. He had searched through the databanks in the main server the previous night, and scored a jackpot. He didn’t even get caught or suspected for such a search, which was off-limits to him, which felt like a good omen. He felt that the K3 project was now destined to succeed.

“Great news,” he said the moment everyone was gathered. “I searched through the main servers and found _everything_ we need.

“What do you mean, _everything_?” one of the assistants asked.

“The solutions to our major problems,” the leader clarified. “The boss keeps track of a certain group of people, and the bios on them contained enough information to solve all of our problems. For our funding problem, we have a target. We will have to kidnap the only daughter of the famous Berlitz family of Sinnoh. Normally, such a task would be daunting, as the family is unbelievably rich, therefore has all sorts of security measures to prevent kidnapping, but according to our intel, the daughter is not in Sinnoh right now. She was last seen in Vermillion City harbor yesterday, so it’s safe to assume that she’s still here in Kanto, or at the very least, Johto. This is the best opportunity to snatch her.”

“What other details do we have on this girl?”

The leader put up a large picture of her on the board. “This is what she looks like. She’s currently 18 years old. Her exact battling proficiency is unknown, however given her record, it’s safe to assume that she’s really powerful. Attempting to kidnap her with a frontal attack is guaranteed to fail, especially since she’s here in Kanto likely visiting friends. So we’ll have to track her down and then look for an opportunity to discreetly snatch her.”

“She doesn’t look physically imposing,” one assistant commented.

“Such an impression is dangerous,” the leader warned. “There is a girl on the database who doesn’t look physically imposing but actually has monstrous strength and physical prowess. Fortunately, the Berlitz girl is not that one.” The leader put up another picture. “This girl is the solution to our Rotom problem. Not only does she have a Rotom, but she also has a specially designed Pokédex that the Rotom can enter and freely control. That Pokédex and the Rotom are our priority. We need to snatch them so we can study the interface for our K3 project. According to our database, she is currently in the region of Alola.”

“So we’ll need to send a small group over, track her down, and steal the Pokédex,” one assistant muttered. “How is her battling proficiency? I doubt we can snatch the Rotom and the Pokédex without a battle happening.”

“Unknown,” the leader answered. “But she should be the easiest target out of all three. Just in case, take precaution.” He put up a final picture. “And this… is our volunteer. She doesn’t know that she’s our volunteer, but that’s irrelevant. Based on preliminary matching, she’s suitable for the K3 project by 99%. Safe to say, we won’t be finding a better candidate than her. However, she’s probably the most difficult target out of all three. Snatching her would be very difficult. But again, for now, we should just focus on tracking all three targets.”

“Where does this girl live?”

The leader smiled. “Right here in Kanto. She had been living in the Sevii Islands until recently, when she moved to mainland Kanto. Which means locating and tracking her wouldn’t be nearly as difficult as the other targets. Now, here are the folders containing information about our three targets. So let’s get going, people. Project K3 awaits us!”


	7. Derailed

Chapter 4: Derailed

Classified location, Kanto, 10 am…

“We found the targets,” the assistant said, quickly entering the division leader’s office. “Our surveillance of the magnet train stations in Johto came up with these shots, taken just half an hour ago.”

The division leader quickly took the photos and examined them. He soon spotted two of the three primary targets close to each other, clearly friendly and talking to each other.

“So they know each other and are friendly,” he noted, formulating a plan. “Hmm… then taking one might lead us to the other…” He crossed his arms and thought for a while before facing his assistant again. “Do we know where they’re going, and where they are currently?”

“Yes. The train they boarded is for a leisurely tour of Johto. It departed Goldenrod City about 20 minutes ago, heading towards Azalea Town. It will then go to Violet City, and then Ecruteak, before finishing its run in Goldenrod.”

“We’ll have to intercept them then. Send the word to the team in Johto. Snatch them. Take both if possible, but don’t risk it. This has to be inconspicuous to avoid suspicion. But we need to snatch one of them today, preferably our financial target. While we don’t know where the target will disembark, since she’s from Sinnoh and this is a tour of Johto, it’s safe to assume that she will not be getting off at Azalea or Violet City. So we have to intercept her before she reaches Ecruteak City. So let’s get to it.”

“Yes sir.”

…

Route 36, Johto, 2 pm…

…

The scout watched the train leisurely approaching the intersection between Goldenrod, Ecruteak, and Violet City. He zoomed in with the binoculars and looked through the windows, scanning all the passengers for the targets. Before long, he was able to spot the target girl sitting on the window seat, next to a blonde girl.

“Target spotted,” he reported through the communication device. “The target is in the window seat in the 6th car of the train. She is sitting next to a blonde girl.”

“Affirmative,” came a response. “Our agent is on the move.”

The scout scanned the windows around the target and was soon able to spot the agent approaching the target girl while carrying a cup of iced coffee. The agent reached the target and pretended to trip, _accidentally_ spilling the iced coffee on the target girl and the blonde girl sitting next to her.

The scout focused on the expressions of the two girls. They were annoyed, but did not appear suspicious. The blonde girl seemed quite angry, and was saying something but the target girl was able to calm her down. The agent apologized to them over and over before resuming his course to the restroom, and occupying it. The two girls climbed out of their seats, with the intent of going to the restrooms to clean themselves up, but since the restroom on their train car was occupied, they would have no choice but to go to another train car to reach its restroom.

“Target is on the move,” the scout reported.

“The target will reach the zone in 23.58 seconds and will exit the zone in 27.32 seconds,” came an automated voice from the communication device.

“We have a complication,” the scout reported. “There is another girl accompanying the target. They’re going to be in the target zone together. What do we do?”

“That’s rather annoying,” the team leader said through the device. “Now there is a risk that the other girl will collide into our target and kill her. … But we don’t have the time. We’ll have to take the chances.”

“The target is approaching the threshold,” the scout reported. “She is in the lead and the other girl is right behind her.”

“What are the odds of success, K2?” the team leader asked.

“The target has an 83.7% probability of survival,” replied the automated voice.

“… Go for it. Commence sabotage.”

…

“Ah, this sucks,” Y grumbled as she followed Platinum down the hall of the train car. “Stupid coffee…”

Platinum let out a sigh. “Yes, this is rather annoying. We will have to change our clothes once we disembark the train and get to the Pokémon Center of Ecruteak. … We will also have to wash our clothes as well.” She took a sniff of her forearm. “… We will also need to take a bath. The smell of coffee is lingering. … I wonder if Ecruteak City has a famous bathhouse…”

The two soon reached the end of the train car and Platinum pressed the button to open the door. Platinum stepped into the threshold between the two train cars and Y followed. The door slid shut behind them and Platinum was about to reach the other door when the whole train shook violently and suddenly accelerated dramatically, sending the two girls tumbling backwards into the door. But with a loud thud coming from ahead, the train came to a sudden halt, sending them flying into the closed door in front of them.

Platinum braced herself just before she collided into the steel door, but the impact was still enough to knock her unconscious.

Y also braced herself for impact, but quickly relaxed as her instinct and experience took over. Thanks to the years of experience as a Sky Trainer, she was quite used to sudden changes in momentum and even high speed crashes. If she tensed up, the impact would do a lot more damage. So she loosened up and effectively rolled as she hit the steel wall, greatly lessening the impact.

As she shook off the effects of the collision, she could feel the train car crunching as it rolled, as if the whole train was derailed from its tracks and was now tumbling uncontrollably thanks to its leftover momentum.

Y managed a glance over at Platinum, and noticed that she was completely limp, as if unconscious. Y pushed off of the wall when the time was right and quickly wrapped her arms around her senior, so that the heiress would not repeatedly collide into the walls of the threshold between the rolling train cars.

The rubbery material that surrounded the threshold began to rip, as it was never intended to stretch as much as it did when the two connected train cars were parallel to one another, along with receiving severe external force from rolling around.

After what seemed like an hour despite being mere seconds, the train car came to a halt. Y remained on alert for a bit before starting to relax. She let out a groan and looked at Platinum in her arms. The heiress was still unconscious, lying on top of her. Y carefully set her down on the ground and after finding her glasses that had fallen off during the chaos, dragged her towards the opening in the surrounding material.

The rubbery material had ripped open much wider, allowing Y to drag Platinum through it to the outside without incident. Y dragged Platinum until they were far enough away from the train to be safe from unexpected accidents.

“Miss Platinum! Can you hear me?” she yelled as she began shaking her senior. “Please wake up!”

Platinum soon stirred and slowly opened her eyes. She put a hand on her head and groaned a little as she sat up. “… Y? … What happened?”

Y handed her the glasses and looked over at the train wreck. “… I don’t know. Maybe the train hit something?”

Platinum recalled the last moments before she had lost consciousness. “… The train accelerated drastically before suddenly coming to a halt. Perhaps the magnet train rails were damaged and malfunctioned.” She snapped out of her thoughts as she remembered something else. “The others! We must find them!” She hastily put her glasses back on and struggled to stand.

Y quickly helped Platinum up to her feet and the two ran towards the train wreck. Y spotted where she had exited the wreck, and using that as reference, backtracked her steps to reach the train car where she had been sitting.

The train car was upside down, with the top half crunched up. The window frames were flattened to the point where it was impossible to crawl through, or even peer through.

“Senior Red? Senior Blue?” Platinum called out as she struck the steel wall. “Black? White?”

Y tried to see if she could force the crushed window frame open a bit. “Ugh. It’s no use…” She glanced around to see if there were any possible other entry points, but soon paused as she saw a small group of people running over. “Hey! Please help us!” she shouted, jumping up and down while waving her arms.

The group ran towards the two Dex Holders even faster now. Y focused back on the train to see if she could find another entry point, while Platinum constantly tried to reach out to the others still stuck inside.

Y suddenly yelped as she felt something strike her back hard, with enough force to slam her into the train. She groggily turned around to see what just happened, and was surprised to see that the group that had run over was looking hostile for some reason.

The leading man in the group stomped her on the chest, slamming her hard into the steel train again, this time with more than enough force to knock her unconscious. Platinum gasped in shock as Y passed out and slid down the wall to the ground.

“Y!” she exclaimed as she tried to crouch next to her junior.

But two members of the hostile group had grabbed her arms to pull her away while the third one clamped a hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming. And even as Platinum desperately struggled, the last member of the group wrapped an arm around her throat and choked her out until she stopped struggling and passed out.

“Messy,” one of the members muttered. “Should’ve gone with sedatives.”

“No. Remember, we can’t risk the chemicals in the sedatives interfering with what we’re going to do to her,” the team leader said.

“What should we do with this one?” another member asked, looking down at Y. “She saw us. We can’t leave her here. Nor can we kill her here without arousing suspicion.”

“Take her too,” the leader replied. “This one clearly means a lot to the target. We can use that. Now let’s get going before anyone sees us.”

“No one else is outside the train,” the scout reported. “But people will be coming to investigate. So you have to get out of there fast.”

“Will do. Let’s move, people.”

…

Classified location, Johto, 3 pm…

…

“As expected, this one’s not within an acceptable range. But _this_ one is at 95% compatibility. We could use her for the project instead of the other target.”

“While that’s true, this one seems lacking in certain criteria while excelling in others. While we can certainly use some of the data we gain from this one, we can’t base our entire project on her.”

“Oh? Looks like she’s coming around. Let’s see if we can get some more data.”

…

Platinum steadily woke up and slowly opened her eyes. She tried to move her arms and realized that her arms were tied behind her. She quickly blinked repeatedly to clear her vision and looked down. She was sitting on a large chair of sorts, and her legs were tied up as well. She glanced around and saw that she was in a large, empty room. And in the corner of the room, Y was lying face down on the floor. She too, had her arms tied behind her and her legs tied together as well.

“Y! Can you hear me?” Platinum called out. “Are you okay?”

Y didn’t budge, and remained motionless. … Was she dead? Platinum quickly shook away the thought. She focused on the rope binding her wrists together behind her and tried to move her arms a bit. As she tried to reposition her arms, she noticed that there were wires touching her arms, and then noticed that the object on her head was not her hat, but rather, some sort of device. The wires were coming from that device to an unknown direction, as she couldn’t look behind her from her current predicament.

“Good to see you’re awake,” came an unfamiliar voice from behind.

Platinum tried to look, but only caught a glimpse of a white lab coat. The kidnapper soon came around so that she could look at his face. The kidnapper was wearing what appeared to be a surgical mask and hat, which made his unique features unknown. Platinum narrowed her eyes, trying to memorize as much of his visible facial features as possible, so that she would be able to identify him once… _if_ she escaped.

“What do you want?” she demanded, trying to remain as calm as possible.

“Straight to the point, I see? Well then, to put it simply, we need a lot of money. And you are going to help us with that. Surely one of your bank accounts would have more than enough to help us without ruining you. After all, you are Platinum Berlitz, the heiress of a famously wealthy family.”

“I will never assist you,” Platinum said with a huff, rather surprised that the kidnapper knew her.

“Of course you won’t,” the kidnapper said. “Not this easily, anyways. So now you’re going to help me with a bit of research. It won’t be pleasant for you, in the slightest. But we’ll see how it goes.”

Platinum clenched her teeth and held her breath a bit to prepare herself. “… I am not afraid of you, or whatever you intend to do.”

“Everyone is afraid of something,” the kidnapper said as he glanced into a handheld device of some sort. “It’s just a matter of finding what you are afraid of in particular.”

Platinum kept a firm cold expression. The kidnapper smirked and put the device away and took out something from his coat pocket. The heiress could see that it was a knife, and took a moment to brace herself.

The kidnapper walked towards her and put the tip of the blade on the exposed part of her left leg between her stocking and her shorts. Platinum winced a bit at the sudden stinging pain from her thigh, but remained firm. She wasn’t going to give in.

The kidnapper simply gauged her reaction and moved the knife so the tip now rested on her neck. Platinum didn’t even flinch. It seemed that a simple death threat wasn’t going to work. She definitely already knew that she was required for whatever he desired, so he was not going to kill her or hurt her too much. So these kinds of _bluffs_ were not working. Perhaps extreme physical pain would work, but that was a last resort.

Platinum ignored the empty threat and chose to focus on her current situation. … Things didn’t add up. She was in an accident on a train that caused the whole train to derail and flip over. And she was kidnapped very quickly after that accident. While it was possible that random people nearby with evil intentions could’ve witnessed the accident and chose to kidnap her, _this_ didn’t make sense. What was this device on her head? And what research? This whole situation indicated that this kidnapping wasn’t a random or compulsive one, but was orchestrated for some greater purpose. And based on how quickly she was snatched at the train wreck, Platinum knew that the train wreck itself was also orchestrated. … Was the man with the coffee also a part of this? Or was that an unrelated incident?

… But if she was going to be kidnapped at the train wreck, it would’ve been much, much harder to do so if she was stuck inside the train car when it flipped over. … Like her seniors and Black and White, who she could only hope were safe and unharmed during the train wreck. So if she was still inside, the kidnappers would not have taken her. So were they aiming to get her out of the train during the crash, so they could snatch her before anyone noticed? … But how could they have predicted her movements and timed their acts so accordingly?

And the kidnapper _knew_ about her wealth. He knew who she was. … This was definitely not a random kidnapping. This was planned. Which meant whatever _they_ were planning that needed money must be stopped. … More reasons why Platinum must not give in to her kidnapper’s demands.

The kidnapper dragged Y into her vision. Platinum snapped out of her thoughts and her eyes opened wide for a brief moment. She didn’t know how long she had been unconscious, but it seemed that the kidnappers had _interrogated_ her junior, and violently too. Y was looking pretty bruised up, and was still clearly unconscious.

“So, what would happen if I were to make your _junior_ here suffer?” the kidnapper asked, holding up the unconscious girl by her throat.

Platinum’s eyes shook a little, and appeared slightly troubled. She quickly regained composure, and her expression turned rigid once more. But in the inside, she was starting to lose control. ‘ _… How does he know that Y is my junior? Who are these people, and how do they know so much? … And what should I do? Do I save Y and give in to evil? Or do I resist and cause her more harm?_ ’

The kidnapper tossed Y aside and took out his handheld device again. He glanced at its screen and smirked. “Oh, that seems to have gotten a response,” he said, much to Platinum’s great surprise.

Y began to cough as she was rudely brought back to consciousness from crashing into the floor. The kidnapper grabbed her by her feet and dragged her towards the wall and attached the rope binding her ankles to a hook, and raised the hook, effectively hanging Y upside down. He raised her until her head was at least a meter off of the floor and after casting a glance at Platinum, punched her in the stomach, slamming her into the wall at the same time.

Y gasped and began to cough violently as she writhed in agony. Platinum winced as well, and struggled a lot more against the ropes binding her limbs.

“What do you think?” the kidnapper asked Y. “Your senior over there would rather watch you suffer than to give up _some_ of her money. And you know how rich she is. Now that seems very harsh.”

“Screw… you…” Y gasped out in between coughs. “Miss Platinum! … Please don’t give in…”

“Y… I am so sorry…” Platinum said, her voice shaking. “Please do not hate me… I… will not give in!”

The kidnapper shrugged and looked at Y again. “That’s too bad for you. Looks like we’ll have to kill you in a bit. But for now, you can just watch, and reconsider your options. Maybe you can convince your senior.”

He looked at his device again and walked up towards Platinum. The heiress gave him a deadly glare. … Regardless of what this greater purpose was, she was sure that her resistance would delay it. If she resisted long enough, then surely the other Dex Holders in the train wreck would be able to escape and notice that she and Y were missing. And they would undoubtedly search for them, along with Diamond and Pearl. Given enough time, they would certainly find them and save them.

A thought suddenly occurred and she felt herself panicking a little. ‘ _… I do not have my bag. I left it in my seat in the train. So my Pokégear, Pokédex, and everything else are all in there. … How will my seniors find me without those? Y does not have her belongings with her either. She left them in her seat as well. … Without our devices, senior Blue cannot trace our location… … Are we trapped here forever with no possibility of being saved? … Is my resistance meaningless?_ ’

The kidnapper watched her reactions carefully and glanced at the device again. “… You’ve been doing a lot of thinking. And it seems like you realized just how serious your situation is. You are trapped here with no hopes of escape or rescue. Which means, I can do _whatever_ I want to you for as long as I want. Your resistance only brings suffering for you and your precious junior.”

Platinum gasped as she sensed a slight surge of fear inside her. The kidnapper took his knife out once again and this time, placed the tip on her chin. He slowly moved the tip down, not actually scratching at her skin, tracing a path down her neck, between the collarbones, until the blade rested on the edge of her shirt.

Platinum’s eyes widened a lot more as she realized where this was headed. The kidnapper gauged her reaction and glanced at his device. The heiress began to lightly tremble as her fear started to overwhelm her. She could feel the knife slowly cutting into her shirt. She clenched her eyes shut as she felt tears threatening to form. She didn’t want to give in to her kidnapper’s demands. But… _this_ was too much.

Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t help but to imagine her fate. She imagined being _violated_ by the kidnapper and felt a severe pang of panic. Her breaths accelerated and her heart began to race. ‘ _No… no… no! I – I can’t…_ ’

“No! No! You bastard!” Y screamed out from the side. “Leave her alone!”

Platinum’s eyes opened at the sound of her voice and glanced over. Her vision started to blur as she realized that Y was next. Once the kidnapper was finished with her, he would undoubtedly do the same to her junior. … She felt sick. She had to stop this… but…

The kidnapper moved the knife further down again, cutting about a centimeter of her shirt. Platinum audibly gasped and clenched her eyes shut again.

‘ _Ah… Diamond! Please… help me…_ ’ she desperately pleaded inside. ‘ _Please… save me!_ ’

“… Ah, that’s what it takes,” the kidnapper said, looking at his handheld device again. He smirked and put the knife away. “A loved one, I see?”

Platinum’s eyes snapped open. ‘ _What… what? How? Does he know Diamond as well?_ ’

The kidnapper glanced at his device. “What’s his name… Diamond, is it?” He smirked as he looked at her expression. “… Diamond from Twinleaf Town in Sinnoh…”

Platinum started to visibly panic. ‘ _How? How?! Is he… is he reading my mind? Is the device on my head allowing him to see my thoughts? But… how is…_ ’ A new thought struck her and she began to hyperventilate. ‘ _Did I… did I endanger Diamond? … By selfishly resisting, did I… bring harm to **him**?_’

“I’d imagine that someone like you, who’s been lonely for most of her life, would be attached to what little friends she managed to make,” the kidnapper said. “Which means, your attachments to your two _precious_ friends, Diamond and Pearl of Twinleaf Town, would be much stronger than most. Especially if you _love_ one of them. And what do you know? Both of them were spotted here in Johto, which makes it so much easier for us to find them, and _hurt_ them,” he said, slowly and deliberately. “A piece of cake, since they will not be expecting trouble. And if they manage to escape… we already know where they live. They won’t be able to hide from us.”

Platinum couldn’t help but imagine her two beloved friends, ambushed in their own homes in Twinleaf Town, lying on the ground badly hurt. … And she couldn’t handle it.

“N – No… please…” she sobbed out, shaking her head. “I… I don’t…”

“And what about those still on that train?” the kidnapper asked. “They’re still on that upside-down train car, dazed and confused. Easy targets. Are you willing to let them die, just so you can resist for no reason?”

Platinum began to scream. Her screams quickly turned into uncontrollable wails as her mental defenses shattered and her mind broke down. The kidnapper glanced at his device again and nodded with a smile.

“Miss… Platinum…” Y muttered, her eyes open wide in shock. She had never seen her senior like _this_ before…

“So, will you cooperate?” the kidnapper asked.

Platinum frantically nodded. “Y – Yes… yes… Please…”

“Good.”

…

“Looks like we were able to get a lot of data off of her brain waves. She has provided us a lot of valuable data as well. Now we know what type of pulse will break down someone like her. Though it took some trial and error to reach the frequency we needed. Extrapolating on that data is required for other people with different brain waves, but we are incapable of doing that right now. There are far too many variables and conditions.”

“Until we get K3 up and running, it would be impossible. Now then, get that girl to give us her bank information. And once we confirm the funds are in, terminate both of them.”

“Yes sir.”


	8. The Escape

Chapter 5: The Escape

August 11, Route 36, Johto, 2:10 pm…

Red groaned and slowly opened his eyes. … What the hell happened? At one moment, he was talking to Blue, and next moment, he was slammed forward into the table and back into his seat with enough force to briefly knock him unconscious. And now, he found himself lying on the ceiling of the upside-down train car.

He slowly pushed himself up a little, just enough to see around himself. The interior of the train car was hellacious, as there were people and luggage strewn about everywhere.

“Ungh…” came a soft voice from below.

Red looked down and saw Blue lying on the train car roof below him, looking to be in pain. Red quickly crawled off and sat next to her. He gently pulled Blue closer to him and shook her by her shoulders. She didn’t seem to be particularly injured, but she had a few ugly bruises visible on her face and arms, undoubtedly caused by being tossed around in the train car when it was derailed.

“Blue? Are you okay?”

Blue began to cough and put a hand over her chest as she regained consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes and pulled back in surprise when she saw Red’s face right up close to hers.

“R – Red!” she stammered out.

“Are you okay?” Red asked again as he watched her expression.

Blue feigned a cough to conceal her embarrassment and nodded. She pulled away from him and sat up, briefly wondering if this was what Red had felt a few years ago when the situation was reversed. She lightly shook her head. No, this wasn’t the time.

She forced herself to look away from Red, and scanned the chaos around her, trying to find Black and White. She soon found familiar luggage bags, and spotted Black and White lying unconscious underneath.

Red pulled Black out of the pile of bags while Blue tended to White. Fortunately, neither of them was injured, so they were able to wake up pretty quickly.

“Ow, ow… What happened?” White asked as she put a hand on the side of her head.

“Train flipped, but I don’t know why,” Blue answered.

Black glanced around at the wreckage. “So… what do we do now?”

“First things first,” Red began. “We have to find Platinum and Y. They were headed to the washroom, so they weren’t seated when the train flipped. We have to find them and see if they’re okay. After that, we’ll have to get out of here.”

White looked really alarmed. “L – Lady Platinum? Y?” She frantically looked around, but only saw piles of luggage and other people. “Oh no… oh no…”

“Stay calm, White. We’ll find them,” Red said. “Black, see if you can cut through the train wall.”

Black reached into his pocket and took out a Pokéball. There wasn’t a lot of space in the train car, so a big Pokémon couldn’t be used, which was why Red hadn’t tried to use his Poliwrath to punch through the wall. But Black’s newest Pokémon wasn’t that big, so…

Since there wasn’t a lot of room, Black just pressed the button to send out his Bisharp. “Sharp, try to cut through the wall here so we can all escape!”

The Bisharp had to crouch to avoid bumping its head on the tables above, but nodded in acknowledgement. It crawled over towards the wall and rammed its arm-blades repeatedly until the steel wall gave way and the blades pierced through.

While the Bisharp hacked away at the wall, White crawled towards the washroom of the train car, trying to see if she could even get a glimpse of Platinum and Y. She couldn’t make much progress thanks to the blockade formed by heavy luggage and the bodies of the other passengers.

“Lady Platinum?! Y?!” she called out, but her voice was soon buried by the cacophony of the other passengers’ moans and cries. “Damn it…”

“We’re through!” Black said, as his Bisharp had successfully cut a block of the wall, big enough for people to crawl through.

“Okay, let’s get out of here,” Red said, rising to his knees. “Then we’ll start by making more of these holes to get everyone else out. Then we can look for Platinum and Y, since it won’t be so cluttered around here.”

…

For over an hour, the four Dex Holders assisted the emergency response teams in cutting off sections of the trains to rescue all the trapped people. They looked at every passenger crawling out of the train, but none of them were Platinum or Y.

White even took Platinum and Y’s bags and sent out their Altaria and Fletchinder so that the two Pokémon could look for their trainers from the skies, but still nothing.

“This is strange,” Blue said as she nursed a particularly painful bruise on her side. “Platinum and Y wouldn’t have gone far to reach the washrooms. Not to mention, the train flipped shortly after they left. But the fact that we still haven’t seen them…”

“Where could they have gone?” White asked quietly, her hands pressed against her heart in worry.

“The emergency guys haven’t seen them either,” Red said as he came back. “No one has seen Platinum or Y anywhere.”

White glanced at Black, who had his Musharna nibbling on his head, and sincerely hoped that he could find some clues.

“We could use Y’s Zweilous,” Blue suggested. “Deino and Zweilous can’t see, so their other senses would’ve developed stronger. So if the Zweilous can catch the scent of Y’s perfume… or even the coffee that spilled on her and Platinum…”

“But is it going to listen to us?” White asked. “That Zweilous was pretty hostile to everyone other than Y.”

“… Yeah. That’s the problem, isn’t it?” Blue said with a sigh.

White suddenly jumped a bit in surprise when she heard chimes coming from inside one of the bags she was carrying. She searched through the bags and soon found Platinum’s Pokégear chiming as it received a call.

Red checked the Pokégear and saw that it was Diamond calling. He took the device from White’s hand and answered.

“Hey, Dia, it’s Red,” he began. “Did you-”

“We’re in Ecruteak City, and we just saw the news. Are you okay? Where’s the Lady?” Diamond asked frantically.

Red let out a sigh. “The train derailed, we don’t know why. We’re all okay, but… we can’t find Platinum and Y.”

For a long while, Diamond didn’t respond, and Red could only imagine that it was due to shock, and/or relaying the information to Pearl.

“… What… what do you mean, you can’t _find_ her?” Diamond asked, his voice shaking.

“They were heading to the washroom when the train flipped,” Red answered. “And we don’t know where they went. We looked everywhere, but we can’t find them. No one has seen them either. Listen, we’re trying our best to find them, but we have no idea what happened. Can you and Pearl come down here and help us? More people the better, right?”

“Yes, of course. We’re on our way. Please just keep us updated.”

“Will do.”

Black reached up and removed the Musharna from his head. “Okay… let’s see…” He went up to the train car, and looked at the seats where the two missing girls had taken. “They were sitting here, and then some guy spilled coffee on them, so they headed towards the washroom that way.” He walked down the length of the train car, as if he was tracing their movement. “But the washroom was occupied, so they would’ve had to gone to the next one, which means they would’ve had to cross over to the next train car…” He stopped in front of a large gaping hole in the joint between the two train cars. “… But they didn’t have the time to reach the washroom on the other side of the train car. Which means they had to have been on this train car, or maybe even before reaching it, when the whole train flipped.”

Red and Blue gasped as they ran over towards the joint area.

“Could they be trapped _under_ the train?” Blue asked in horror.

Red cursed and sent out his Poliwrath. Blue clenched her teeth and sent out her Blastoise, and White sent out Platinum’s Empoleon. Black tilted his head, as he briefly wondered how the two girls would’ve gotten underneath the train given the circumstances, but sent out his Emboar to assist nonetheless. The four Pokémon worked together and managed to lift the joint section of the train and the adjacent cars enough for Blue to peek under with her modified Silph Scope.

“Are they… there?” White asked, afraid of the answer. _Both_ possible answers were bad.

Blue shook her head. “No. There’s nothing there.” She took off her Silph Scope and sighed. “That’s good… and bad. Good because they’re not crushed under the train, but bad since we still don’t know where they are.”

Black crossed his arms as he thought. “… This was the direction those two headed, and this rip in the joint area was the only way they could’ve left the train in any way. But the fact that they’re not here…”

“They wouldn’t have gone anywhere while the rest of us were still trapped in the train,” Red said. “They would’ve tried to reach us and pull us out. If anything, they should still be around here. … But they’re not.”

“Could they have been taken?” Blue suggested. “They should still be in the train if they didn’t fall out. But they’re not in the train. If they fell out, they should be around here. They’re not. If they fell out and were okay, they’d still be around here, trying to save us. … They’re not. That means they fell out of the train but were not okay. The only thing that makes sense is that they fell out and were taken away by someone.”

“It’s a long shot, but that’s the only thing that makes any amount of sense here,” Red said. “… But if they were taken… we have no way of finding them.”

…

Meanwhile, classified location, Johto…

…

“The funding won’t be a problem anymore. It’ll take some time to confirm that all of the transfer has been completed, but the money is coming in now.”

“Excellent. Once the transfer is completed, terminate the two girls. Until then, keep scanning her neural patterns. This girl showed a lot of potential for the K3 project, so any data is bound to be helpful. And prepare to purge everything. Once the transfer has been noticed by the Berlitz family, they will most certainly try to track us. So we’ll have to lay low for a while, and we’ll use that time to develop the basis of K3.”

“Understood.”

…

Y clenched her teeth as she watched the kidnapper force Platinum back into her _torture chair_. The heiress looked broken. She offered no resistance whatsoever and her eyes were only half open. Even as the kidnapper tied her arms to the chair again, she simply sat slumped over.

The kidnapper soon left the room, probably to go discuss something with his buddies, leaving Platinum and Y by themselves. The kidnapper probably figured that nothing could possibly happen, since both girls were tied up pretty tight, and with Platinum broken and Y hanging upside down, they weren’t in any position to do anything.

Platinum remained slumped over in her chair, motionless. The weird machine on her head had a small green light blinking. Y didn’t know what that meant, but knew that it couldn’t be good. She had to get out and _fast_.

She squirmed as she tried to reposition her hands and wrists. The rope binding her wrists together was very tight, so she couldn’t make much progress in trying to slip her hands out of the bind.

Y gritted her teeth as the effects of being hung upside down were beginning to get worse. She had to get out of this predicament and free Platinum before the kidnapper came back. … He had already gotten what he wanted out of Platinum. The next time he came back, he would be completely free to do whatever he wanted. And Y knew that she couldn’t stick around for that.

She looked at her feet and the ropes binding her ankles together. Her boots were removed beforehand, and her ankles were tied pretty tight. The knot was placed on the hook, and by the looks of it, the hook wasn’t that big. And fortunately, the hook was affixed pretty tight on the wall, so it would not be moving as Y tried to squirm off.

Y took a deep breath and forced her upper body to bend, as if she was doing a sit-up. It took a tremendous amount of effort since she was hanging upside down, but she was able to get her head at least up to her knee level.

Now the next part was going to be tricky. She adjusted the position of her hands so that both of her palms would touch the wall once she “let go”. After counting to three to get ready, she stopped fighting gravity with her upper body, letting herself uncurl quickly. The moment her palms hit the wall, she immediately pushed the wall towards the floor, effectively pushing herself up in the opposite direction, which immediately removed all resistance of the hook holding the knot for a split second. And in that split second, Y used the momentum of her fall to pull her feet down, as if she was in the middle of doing a back-flip, freeing her feet from the hook.

She fell quickly, and she tucked her knees closer to her chest so that her feet would swing down faster. And because of that, she was able to land on her feet and not on her head. She bent her knees to lessen the impact and it caused her to roll backwards until she was lying on her back.

Y let out a sigh of relief and took a moment to regular her breathing. Now that she was free and her blood was flowing evenly throughout her body, she could move on to untying the ropes binding her limbs together.

She pulled her feet up and uncoiled her body, using the momentum to spring up to her feet. She was still in a very _annoying_ predicament, though, since her ankles and knees were bound together, and her wrists were as well behind her. So all she could do right now was hop around.

She hopped around to get to a better position and dove forward into a forward roll, while crunching up her body and swinging her arms in the opposite direction. Once the forward roll finished and she had rolled up to her feet again, her hands were now tied in front of her, and not behind her. And now that she could, she immediately began working on loosening the bind on her wrist using her teeth.

Within a few minutes, Y was able to untie all the ropes that were binding her limbs together, and took a moment to massage her sore limbs.

She quickly scrambled up to her feet once her limbs felt good enough, and crouched in front of Platinum.

… The heiress was still sitting there motionless, her eyes half-open. Y felt around her senior’s throat for her pulse, and was relieved to feel it on her fingertips. … But what had happened to her? She seemed to be in shock… What did that bastard do?

Y looked at the machine on Platinum’s head and reached over to take it off, but stopped mid-reach. The kidnapper was using this machine to monitor something. And based on what she had seen and heard, Y surmised that the kidnapper was using it to scan Platinum’s thought patterns or brainwaves. Which meant that if she was to remove this device from her senior’s head, the kidnapper would notice immediately and come over to investigate. And right now, Y didn’t have an escape plan, so she would just be trapped in this room when the kidnapper and his buddies barged in.

“I’m sorry, Miss Platinum, but… please hang in there for a bit longer,” Y whispered as she put her hands on her senior’s cheeks. Platinum was still in her strange comatose-like trance and didn’t move an inch.

Y forced herself to move away from her senior and glanced around the room. There was a door and a keypad next to it, and it was where the kidnapper had exited. There was no way for Y to even guess at what the code was going to be, so that wasn’t a viable exit. Not to mention, a keypad door would likely set off an alarm upon three incorrect codes, and probably make a lot of noise when it opened.

She spotted her boots lying on the corner of the room and went over to retrieve them. Sooner or later, she’d probably have to run, and running on just stockings wouldn’t last long.

Y went over to investigate the hook where she had been hung upside down. There was a long indent of sorts on the wall, and that was where the hook was. And the fact that the hook was raised while being attached to the wall indicated that there was some sort of machinery on the other side. … So this “room” had some large machines right outside the walls? … But why? Is this room a part of some much larger complex? If that’s the case, then there’s probably another exit somewhere…

She did a quick scan around the whole room, but failed to find any secret hatches or any other exits. There wasn’t enough time to do a thorough scan or to meticulously examine every square inch of the walls, and Y didn’t have the peace of mind to do that either. She was in a hurry; she had to find a way out before the kidnappers came back.

‘ _There’s no way out…_ ’ she thought, feeling a bit of panic in the back of her mind. ‘ _There’s only one exit, and that’ll run straight into the kidnappers… But do I have a choice? There’s nothing else I can do…_ ’ She looked over at Platinum, still sitting slumped over. ‘ _Fighting through the kidnappers alone is hard enough, especially if there are a lot more of their friends around. But doing so while carrying Miss Platinum is going to be impossible. … But I can’t leave her here… I have no choice!_ ’ Y ran over towards Platinum and pulled the strange machine off of her head and ripped the wires out. She then quickly untied the rope binding her limbs and then crouched in front of her. “Miss Platinum! Can you hear me?”

“… Y…” the heiress mumbled out, her eyes still rather empty and unfocused.

Y clenched her teeth and glanced at the keypad locked door. “… Please hang on tight. We’re going to escape!”

She lifted her senior onto her back and ran towards the door. She slightly lowered herself, getting ready for the moment the door opened. This would be her only opportunity to escape, and if this failed, she would die here along with Platinum.

As expected, the door soon opened as the kidnapper came to investigate why the machine had been disconnected. The moment the door opened, Y charged forward and rammed her boot into his chest, slamming him against the wall at the same time, getting revenge for what the kidnappers did to her in the train wreck.

The man was caught off guard, as he certainly didn’t expect Y to be free and ready to strike. The kick hit him hard, and the collision into the wall was enough to knock the wind out of him for a few seconds, giving Y plenty of time to hop over his body and run like hell.

Y had expected to be in the middle of some large facility, but instead found herself in a small hallway with one small room on the opposite side of the large “torture” room, and the exit to the staircase on the other end of the hallway. The door to the small room began to open and Y just sprinted towards the stairs.

She ran up the stairs as many steps at a time as possible and soon reached the top. The exit door on top didn’t require a keypad, and instead, was an old rusted door. The other side of the door was a big abandoned warehouse of sorts.

“… What the hell…” Y muttered between breaths, quickly looking left and right to find a way out of the warehouse. There were a lot of large boxes covered in dust that blocked her field of view. She wanted to climb on top of the boxes to hide from the pursuers and to see around her a lot better, but it wasn’t possible while carrying Platinum on her back.

Y ran straight to the right. She figured that the pursuers were going to know where the exits were, so if she spent time to evade them by zigzagging around the boxes, she would get surrounded. So she had to reach the exits before the pursuers did, and she figured that a warehouse like this would have more than one door, so left or right should both lead her to an exit.

Her assumptions were correct. As she heard the angry voices of pursuers behind her, she saw the exit door a little to the left. She reached the door and managed to unlock and open it before the pursuers reached her. She narrowly slipped through the open door just before the pursuers grabbed her.

Y momentarily paused. She was on top of a cliff that faced the _ocean_ , so sprinting in that direction wasn’t going to work. She glanced backwards and saw a forest. Perfect! She spun around and sprinted towards the warehouse, but had to stop after just a few steps as several guys came out of the warehouse. Y had no idea how many people were in this weird underground secret base, but clearly there were more than just the four kidnappers. There was almost a dozen guys out here right now, surrounding her in a semicircle. Getting through them would not happen.

“Sh*t…” Y cursed as she slowly stepped backwards, until her heel was at the very edge of the cliff. She weighed her options. Fighting through a dozen guys would not work out. Outrunning them would not work when she was already surrounded. Y glanced backwards at the ocean about 50m below her. … She couldn’t swim at all. Jumping into the water would only spell doom for her, even though there weren’t any rocks down there. … Was there just no way out?

“Y…” Platinum began, her voice still weak. “… _Jump_.”

“Are you sure?” Y asked in surprise.

“… Yes… It is the only choice we have…” she said, just as the surrounding pursuers began to charge forward.

Y gasped and momentarily froze in terror, but quickly hardened her resolve. “The hell with it!” She spun around on her heel to face the ocean and leapt forward as far as she could just before the leading pursuer’s hand could reach her.

And in a blink of an eye, the two Dex Holders plummeted straight towards the ocean.

…

“They escaped.”

“How?”

“We don’t know. We tied them up and even hung one upside down, and yet they escaped. They reached outside and jumped off the cliff into the water.”

“… While it’s probable that they died, we have to consider the possibility that they survived the fall. We need to evacuate this base. Empty it out, so when people come to investigate, they see nothing whatsoever. Even if the two girls survived, it doesn’t change the fact that we got what we wanted. Now we can pursue the target in Alola. Send a small group while the rest of us prepare for what’s to come next.”


	9. The Raid

Chapter 6: The Raid

August 11, unknown location, Johto, 4 pm…

Platinum and Y plummeted towards the water far below them. Y was used to freefall and thus was able to stay focused, but was terrified of the fact that she was going to be in _deep water_. The water was approaching far too quickly for her comfort, and could already feel the panic starting to grow in the back of her mind.

Y glanced to her side and saw Platinum also in freefall. The heiress had never really been in freefall like this in normal gravity, and either because of that or the fact that she hadn’t fully recovered from her trance, she seemed to be locked up and tensed as well. Y gasped as her panic was starting to surface. She was definitely going to sink underwater. She would need Platinum to save her and pull her out of the water. But if the heiress was also tensed up and thus was not able to save her…

“Miss Platinum!” Y cried out, unable to suppress her desperation. “Please! You have to-”

Before she could finish, she hit the water surface and immediately sank deep underwater from the momentum of the fall. And Y quickly realized that she hadn’t prepared for this. She didn’t breathe in deep and held her breath. She was in the middle of screaming out to Platinum, thus had barely any air in her lungs already.

Platinum had also sank equally deep as Y, but unlike the Kalos Dex Holder, the heiress seemed too relaxed, almost as if she had lost consciousness again. But thankfully, she opened her eyes as coming into sudden contact with cold water greatly helped her in snapping out of her strange mental trance. She blinked a couple of times and met Y’s eyes as the younger girl frantically clawed and kicked at the water despite sinking deeper.

Platinum noticed that she also hadn’t been holding her breath, so she quickly kicked at the water to reach the surface. Y watched in horror as her senior and her _lifeline_ swam up towards the surface and away from her, as if abandoning her. She quickly stretched a hand towards the heiress, as if screaming at her for help. Platinum reached the water surface and gasped for air. She kept kicking at the water so that she could keep her head above the surface, until she took enough breaths. She shook her head to clear her mind and after taking a deep breath, she dived underwater to try to save Y.

Y felt relief washing over her when she saw her senior diving underwater once more. She kicked upwards as much as she could and stretched her hand towards her again. She could feel her vision beginning to tunnel as she began to suffer the effects of suffocation. Platinum reached down with her hand as well, but much to Y’s horror, she _stopped_ just before grabbing her hand.

‘ _Miss Platinum! What… what are you…_ ’ Y thought in panic, as she looked into her senior’s eyes. Platinum looked as cold and calculating as ever, as she stared at her with unblinking eyes. ‘ _Please! Save me!_ ’

But Platinum pulled her hand back, keeping out of her junior’s reach. Y’s mouth fell open in shock, and the last of her air bubbled out of her mouth.

Platinum winced as she saw the pained and betrayed expression on her junior’s face in between the air bubbles. ‘ _I am so sorry, Y…_ ’ she thought as she clenched her teeth. ‘ _But… I cannot save you right now. … I have to wait. … You are too panicked. If I reach for you, you will end up pulling me down. I cannot match your strength, and we will both drown… I will save you, Y. But you must wait a little longer…_ ’ She averted her gaze to not see her junior’s hurt and betrayed expression and let a little bit of her air escape past her lips as her natural buoyancy slowly dragged her up towards the water surface.

Y frantically shook her head as she saw her senior slowly drifting further away. ‘ _No, no! Miss Platinum! Don’t leave me! No!_ ’ She opened her mouth once more in an attempt to cry out and in her panic, she gasped for air. And instantly, a mouthful of water entered her body, causing her to immediately try to take another breath, which only allowed more water to enter. Y reached towards her mouth with her hands as she realized her fatal mistake. But it was already too late. More water kept entering her system. She briefly thrashed around in panic but her body soon locked up and she began to sink as her world turned black. She made one last desperate reach towards her senior before she passed out, but as her vision faded, she could see her senior quickly swimming towards her…

…

Meanwhile, New Bark Town…

…

Gold opened the door to the basement, ready for some post-snack pool game. Perhaps now that he had a tasty snack before dinner, he’d be able to break his personal record? But as he entered the basement, he realized that his attempts at breaking his record weren’t possible anymore. One of his new Pokémon, Houndour, was currently napping on the pool table, lying flat on its back with its little paws resting while pointing upwards. The Houndour’s hind leg occasionally kicked up at the air as it snored happily.

“… Well, there goes the game,” Gold said with a sigh.

He walked up to the pool table and looked at his Pokémon. … Normally, a Pokémon like Houndour would prefer to sleep on its belly, and not flat on its back. But this one was either mimicking a sleeping human, or is just… weird, since it was fast asleep while lying flat on its back.

Gold carefully put a hand on the Houndour’s belly and scratched it, causing the little Pokémon to whimper happily. It began to lightly kick at the air with its front legs now, but still remained asleep.

Suddenly, there was a loud static like noise from upstairs, as if someone just turned on the TV and went to an unavailable channel. The static noise soon got replaced by random disjointed voices and other sound effects, as if that person was flipping through a variety of channels with the volume on annoyingly high. Gold sighed as his Houndour woke up from the annoying noises.

“Sorry, Houndtaro,” he said as he pet the Houndour’s head. “Looks like that freeloader is getting _too_ comfortable around here.”

The Houndour growled and Gold could feel its body temperature rapidly rising. He gave it a series of gentle pets to calm it down, and the Houndour acknowledged its trainer’s wishes and calmed down. It still looked a bit disgruntled at having its nap interrupted rudely. It then looked up at its trainer expectantly, wagging its little tail.

Gold understood what the little Pokémon wanted and went over to fetch a snack from the shelf. He held the snack high above the Houndour, and it rose up to its hind legs while trying to reach the snack with its front legs. Gold soon let the Houndour have the snack, which it devoured pretty quickly. The Houndour looked off to the side and let out a satisfied burp in the form of a small flame, which dissipated shortly.

“Must’ve been a spicy meatball, eh?” Gold said with a chuckle, petting the Houndour again. The Pokémon barked a couple of times in happiness, and wagged its tail again. “Want to go out for a walk, bud?”

The Houndour barked excitedly and hopped off of the pool table, eager to go. Gold chuckled and grabbed the Pokéballs of his other Pokémon. His Houndour reached the door at the top of the stairs and began to lightly claw at the door. Gold opened the door and shook his head with a sigh as he heard the unfortunately familiar theme of a certain robot show. His Houndour momentarily growled at the loud noise, but headed towards the front door, clawing at the door again.

“All right, all right, Hountaro,” Gold said as he quickened his pace. “Let’s get out of this loud place and start having some quiet fun!”

…

Gold watched his Houndour sprinting towards the thrown compressed billiard cue. The little Pokémon bit the cue to grab it and then ran back towards its trainer.

“Good boy, Hountaro,” Gold said as he took back his billiard cue and petted the Houndour. The Houndour barked excitedly and waited for him to throw the cue again. “All right, now let’s see how quickly you return this time!” He pulled his hand back and prepared to throw the cue as far as he could. But as he did so, he heard an annoyed whistle of sorts from above, forcing him to stop. “Whoops. Sorry, Litaro,” he said as he slowly reached with his other hand to the top of his head, where his Litwick was resting. The Litwick let loose a small burst of flame from its tip, expressing its frustration at being swung around like so thanks to its trainer’s sudden movements. “Okay. Here goes!” Being careful to prevent the Litwick from swinging around so much again, he threw the cue as far as he could.

The Houndour sprinted towards the cue once more, barking excitedly. Gold watched the Houndour run before shifting his attention to his last new Pokémon to see what it was up to. The Larvitar was digging a small hole in the ground with its hands. And Gold couldn’t help but think that the Larvitar looked like one of those little orphans in the Violet City orphanage, playing at a sandbox.

Gold walked over towards the Larvitar, and just as he was a step away, the Larvitar shoved a handful of dirt into its mouth. … Yep. Definitely like that orphan…

“Hey, Li’l Tartaro,” he called out, crouching next to the Larvitar. “… Let’s not eat _too_ much dirt, huh? We don’t want dozens of potholes all over New Bark Town.”

The Larvitar raised a hand as acknowledgement as it munched on the dirt. There was a muffled bark from behind and Gold turned around to see his Houndour with the billiard cue in its mouth. Well then… another round of fetch!

And for a long while, Gold played with the Houndour. Sometimes he would throw his billiard cue. Sometimes he would run around and get the Houndour to chase him. And sometimes he would chase the Houndour.

Gold came to a stop when his Pokégear started to ring. He checked the device and noticed that it was Crystal calling him. “Oh, hey, Crys. What’s up?” he asked. “Our Week 21 check-up isn’t for another day or two.”

“No, it’s not that. Listen, Blue just called me,” Crystal began, her voice shaking a little. “… And to put it simply, Platinum and Y have gone missing somewhere between Goldenrod and Ecruteak. And it seems that they were _taken_ by someone. Can you and Silver come over here to Violet City? We’ll need to search around northern Violet City and Route 36.”

“Right. I’ll be there shortly,” Gold said with a nod. “But… if those two were taken… searching from the skies isn’t really going to do anything. It’s not like they’ll be in plain sight somewhere.”

“I know, but we can’t be doing nothing,” Crystal said. “At the very least, we’ll be in the vicinity ready if they show up somewhere, or we get a new hint.”

“Okay. I’ll see you soon.” Gold hung up and stared at the Pokégear briefly. … Another call to action, huh? … So be it. He put his Pokégear away and looked at his Pokémon. The Houndour looked up at him curiously. The Litwick was no longer dozing off, as it recognized the serious tone in its trainer’s voice. And the Larvitar was lying on its back with an extremely satisfied face, as it had just finished eating its own volume’s worth of dirt, looking like a miniature Snorlax. “All right guys. Time to move. We’re going to Violet City to maybe kick some bad guys in their rear. So let’s get going!”

He returned his three Pokémon and headed back into his house to fetch Silver. The _freeloader_ was seated at the couch, watching a rerun of his damned favorite robot show… very loudly. Gold stepped in front of the television, blocking his view.

“Dude, move,” Silver said, looking quite annoyed.

Gold simply lowered the television volume to acceptable levels before shutting it off. “We have to go to Violet City right now. There’s been a call to arms, freeloader. Crys needs us to meet up with her right now.”

“… Call to arms?” Silver asked, tilting his head. “… Like what?”

“Super Formal Gal and Sky Girl have gone missing somewhere between Goldenrod, Ecruteak, and Violet City. And apparently they’ve been _taken_ by someone. And so we’re going to look for them. So, you know the music. Time to dance.” He turned away and headed towards the front door, but paused midway. “Unless of course, you want me to tell senior Blue that you didn’t want to come because you didn’t want to miss a rerun of a robot show.”

Silver slowly rose to his feet. He briefly checked his pockets to make sure he still had his Pokémon on him. “All right. Let’s roll.”

…

Meanwhile…

…

Platinum reached the surface of the water and gasped for air, as she kicked at the water below to stay afloat. She grunted with exertion as she tried to keep Y’s head above the water surface as well. The Kalos Dex Holder was unconscious, but still very tensed up, making it difficult for Platinum to keep herself afloat with her junior.

She looked up the cliff where she had jumped. Her pursuers were out of sight. … Were they not going to see where their captives were, or if they’re even alive? … Did they not care anymore, since they already got what they wanted?

Platinum clenched her teeth. … Her kidnappers were going to regret this. Once she regrouped with the others, she would tell Red and Blue where this base was, and they would assault this base together.

… But first things first. She had to get out of this water, resuscitate Y, and then find a way to contact the other Dex Holders.

Platinum glanced around for the nearest shore. The nearest shore was to her right, and it wasn’t too far away. She proceeded to slowly kick at the water while pulling Y, being careful to keep her head above water. And as she swam, she noticed that the body of water was not an ocean as she had initially thought, but a lake. This wasn’t salt water, which certainly helped in the event of accidentally swallowing the water, but not when trying to swim.

Platinum mentally brought up the map of Johto she had studied not too long ago. If she was in an ocean near where the train was derailed, that would mean she was currently either east of Ecruteak City, or west of Goldenrod. But if she was in a large lake, then she had to be near the northern end of Violet City… Then would it be possible to reach Crystal?

She soon reached the shore and pulled Y onto dry land. The blonde girl wasn’t breathing, and had a trickle of water flowing from her mouth. Platinum tried shaking her first, but nothing happened. Her pulse was strong at least. Platinum tapped her junior on the cheek, first lightly but gradually increasing in power.

Y soon stirred and began to cough up the water she had swallowed. Platinum sighed in relief and pulled back, giving her junior some space. Y coughed violently for a minute or so before finally calming down and opening her eyes. She saw Platinum and she quickly sat up, a mix of emotions appearing on her face.

“I am so sorry, Y,” Platinum said, lowering her head a little, as she immediately noticed one of the emotions visible on her junior’s face. “I did not have a choice. You were too panicked. If I had tried to rescue you, you would have pulled me underwater, and we both would have drowned. I had to wait until you were unable to struggle.”

Y clenched her teeth, feeling very angry, but not at Platinum. She admitted that if the heiress had reached out for her, Y would’ve pulled her under while trying to reach the surface. The feeling of betrayal hurt her, but she more felt angry at her own helplessness. … Maybe after things had settled down again, she could start taking swimming lessons or something…

Y put a hand on her chest and took a couple of shuddering breaths as she recalled the terrifying moments where she thought that her senior had abandoned her to her fate. She still felt the urge to lash out, but held her tongue. And besides, in that kidnapper’s facility, when Platinum had that weird machine on her head, Y didn’t save her immediately either, as she knew that doing so would only be bad for both of them. So… they were even now.

“I… understand,” she managed to say eventually. “You still saved me, so… thank you for that.”

Platinum smiled and gently hugged her junior. “And thank you for saving me in that facility. You were incredible, having freed yourself and single-handedly breaking out.”

Y blushed at the sudden compliment and rubbed the back of her neck embarrassedly. “Um… yeah, I guess, hehe…”

Platinum slowly rose to her feet. “Now come. We must find a way to contact the others. They are probably looking for us from above. They will be easy to spot if we are close enough.”

Y rose to her feet and took a look around. “… Where even are we, anyways?”

“The water is not salty. It is not the ocean,” Platinum said, pointing at the water where they had fallen. “From what I have seen on the map, the only lakes close by the train wreck site is the ones in the northern parts of Violet City. So assuming we were not taken somewhere too far away, we should be close to Violet City.”

“So then we can spot the Sprout Tower in the distance,” Y said, looking around once more. “Ah, these trees are too tall though…”

“We will head towards the direction of the sun. Given the current time, the sun should be in the south-southwest direction. If we head a bit to the east away from the sun, we should be heading towards Violet City.”

With that, the two girls began to walk. There was a small trail between the trees, but since they didn’t know where this trail led, they opted to follow the shore of the lake, but from the forest. They didn’t want to be spotted by their kidnappers, but being close to the lake meant that if they spotted anyone familiar flying around in the skies, they could get out to the open quickly to signal them.

Within half an hour, as the two girls walked, the lake grew wider and wider until it seemingly blocked their path south. But from here, they could see the Sprout Tower of Violet City on the other side of the water. And in the distance near the top of the Sprout Tower was a small dot of an aerial transport Pokémon flying around.

Y jumped and waved at the small dot while Platinum tried to reflect sunlight off of her Pokétch screen to get the dot’s attention quickly.

From the other side of the lake, Crystal quickly turned to look at a shining object in the distance that caught her eye. She squinted to get a better look, but it seemed like a glass-like object reflecting sunlight… that wasn’t there a few minutes ago. She got her Xatu to fly over much close for a better look, and sure enough, she was able to see Y jumping up and down while waving at her and Platinum standing next to her.

“Gold, I found them!” Crystal quickly reported through her Pokégear. “They’re north of the Sprout Tower. Tell Red and Blue, and we’ll meet up in the Pokémon Center!”

The Xatu flew over to Platinum and Y as fast as possible, allowing Crystal to meet up with her lost juniors quickly.

“Crystal!” Y shouted happily once her senior was close enough.

Crystal freed herself from her Xatu’s telekinetic grip and ran over towards her juniors. “I’m so glad you’re both safe!” she said as she embraced the two girls. “Are you two hurt?”

“We are okay, senior Crystal,” Platinum said with a relieved smile. “… But… we do have a problem…”

“You were kidnapped, right?” Crystal asked. “Blue told me that you two were probably taken. … We’ll have to deal with that. But first, come on, let’s go to the Pokémon Center and meet up with the others. We’ll discuss what to do next.”

…

Half an hour later, 6 pm…

…

Diamond and Pearl were the last to arrive at the Violet City Pokémon Center. Diamond rushed in as soon as he returned his Skarmory, and ran towards Platinum.

“Lady! You’re okay!” he said as he quickly hugged her.

Platinum put an arm around him and smiled warmly. “Yes. I am okay. I apologize for worrying you.”

“I’m really glad you’re safe, Miss Lady,” Pearl said with a smile. “So… what happened to you?”

Platinum and Y took turns in explaining what had happened to them since the train wreck, and Platinum’s analysis of the situation.

“That’s… really scary,” White said, putting a hand over her heart. “They pulled off such an elaborate kidnapping, and got what they wanted… They… _succeeded_ …”

“We’ll have to raid this base of theirs,” Red said, crossing his arms. “Do you remember where it was?”

“Yes, senior,” Platinum answered. “It is on top of a cliff overlooking the lakes up north.”

“That would make it easy to spot,” Black said. “I doubt there’ll be too many similar looking buildings in similar hills near the similar lakes.”

“Then let’s raid them right now,” Red said.

“… The fact that they didn’t bother chasing Platinum and Y when they jumped is unnerving,” Blue said with a sigh. “… That means they either thought you two died, or they don’t care. If they don’t care, that means they’re aware of the possibility that you two would meet up with us again, and that we would raid them. So it’s possible that they’re waiting for us to attack them.”

Gold glanced around their tables in the Pokémon Center. “But there are 11 of us there. Surely these kidnappers won’t be ready for _all_ of us at once.”

“True,” Blue said. “… All right. Let’s go, then, before the sun sets. The sun won’t fully set for another couple of hours, so we don’t have too long.”

…

A few minutes later, the Dex Holders were able to locate the warehouse which served as the kidnappers’ facility. Fortunately, there was nothing remotely similar in the vicinity, which made identification very easy.

Gold landed near the warehouse first, and hopped off of his Togekiss. He slowly stepped towards the warehouse window and peeked inside. … There were no movements anywhere.

Red and Blue landed next, and Blue began to scan the area with her modified Silph Scope. There were no readings on her thermal, and night vision showed nothing hidden in the dark shadows within the warehouse. She sent out her new Starmie, which promptly camouflaged itself to match the interior of the warehouse and floated up towards the ceiling, scanning on top of the boxes and between the rows of the stacked boxes for anything like an ambush. … So far, nothing.

One by one, the other Dex Holders landed near the warehouse. Satisfied that there was nothing like an ambush here, Red and Blue signaled the others to gather around.

“Okay, so far so good,” Red began. “Now, we can’t all go in there, so half of us will have to stay outside and make sure nothing comes in to surprise us.”

“Platinum and Y, you two are coming with us,” Blue said. “You two have been inside, so you’ll know what we’re looking at. Gold, Silver, Pearl, Black, and White, you guys stay up here and watch our backs.”

“Got it,” Silver said with a nod. “I’ll be on lookout in case something comes our way.”

“Good. Let’s move,” Red said. He crept into the warehouse and looked up. He spotted the faint red glow of Blue’s Starmie. Since the Pokémon was not flashing its core, Red assumed that all was clear and proceeded forward.

They soon came across the door that led downstairs. Blue stepped towards the door and quietly pushed her snake camera under the door to see what was on the other side. She looked at her Pokégear’s screen as she moved the snake cam left and right, but even in night vision, she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Thermal vision revealed nothing either.

Blue withdrew the snake cam and quietly opened the door. With her modified Silph Scope, she checked for any kind of traps, cameras, laser sensors, and the likes, but found nothing.

“This is where those guys came from,” Y whispered, pointing at the door where the kidnappers’ buddies have emerged from. “We didn’t get to see what was inside though.”

Blue checked with her snake cam again before opening the door. The room was pretty big and there were old dusty furniture scattered around, as if this was some kind of abandoned recreation room. A break room perhaps, for some employees who used to work in the warehouse.

“Status report,” Crystal whispered into her Pokégear.

“All clear up here,” Gold replied. “How are things on your end?”

“All clear here too. But that’s what worries me,” Crystal answered. “… I’ll keep you posted.”

“I will too. Good luck.”

Y stopped in front of the only remaining door. “… This was a keypad locked door,” she said, looking at the old wooden door that was in front of her. “… How did…”

Blue checked with her snake cam once again before opening the door. She glanced around here and there, but… this large room was _completely_ empty. She reached for the lights and flicked them on, illuminating the whole place.

“… Are you sure this is the right place?” Red asked as he walked into the large empty room. “This place looks like it’s been deserted for a decade,” he said, looking at the dusty floors.

“Yes, I am certain that this is the correct place,” Platinum answered. “There were no other candidates in the vicinity. This has to be the place. … I do not understand what is going on…”

“Let’s search the area. Who knows what we’ll find,” Y suggested, entering the large room.

Blue switched her modified Silph Scope to electromagnetic mode, to see if she could spot any electronics. But everything remained dark in her view, as there was nothing electronic anywhere, other than the wires that were connected to the lights above. But given what Platinum and Y went through, this _had_ to be the right place. Seeing it empty like this… it was very unnerving. Blue kept her guard up and meticulously scanned the walls and the floors.

Platinum and Y were looking around as well, shocked by how different everything looked. Y walked up towards the wall where she had been hung upside down. She glanced at the entrance to the room, and noted that the wall where the keypad had been was simply eroded away. But the angle and the view of the door matched her memories. … This was the right wall.

“… There was a hook here that the guy raised while I was hanging upside down,” she said, putting a hand on the empty wall.

Blue stopped at a particular wall. Her modified Silph Scope’s electromagnetic vision caught something that the naked eye would not have been able to see. She leaned in a bit closer and raised the scope a bit to check with her bare eyes first.

“What’s wrong?” Crystal asked as she walked up to her senior.

“This wall…” Blue began, putting a hand on the wall. “… This one has faint traces of wiring behind it. All the others don’t, but this one does. The only other wire connects to the lights above, but these wires don’t seem to be connected to anything.”

“Wait, this wall doesn’t have anything either?” Y asked, pointing to where she was hung upside down. “But… the hook was raised by a machine…”

“If they unplugged the machine, the wires would be inactive, and then I wouldn’t be able to see it in the EM mode,” Blue explained. “But there are a few wires behind this one that are still active. They’re still powered up by something.”

“What does that mean?” Crystal asked.

“It means that this wall is probably a secret doorway,” Blue answered. “And those wires used to connect to a button or a panel or something that would be used to lift a secret hatch that would be impossible to see otherwise. But it looks like the wires had been severed so that we can’t trigger the hatch anymore.”

“So we can’t open the secret door anymore,” Diamond said. “So… what now?”

Blue crossed her arms and thought for a while. “… Right now, we can’t do anything. But… this is real bad. This means that whoever took Platinum and Y are very organized, has a ton of assets and manpower, and is smart enough to have predicted that we would raid this place, so they preemptively evacuated and cleaned up the place to make it look like an old abandoned warehouse. … This is not a random kidnapping. These guys knew exactly what they were doing. And worst of all, they got what they wanted without consequences. So… what’s next on their agenda?”

“And we don’t know anything about them,” Y muttered. “… Yeah, this is real bad…”

“Platinum, you’ll have to trace your bank transfers,” Blue said. “These guys got their money from you through a bank transfer. If these guys were very thorough, they would’ve made sure to use an offshore account that won’t be pointing in their direction, but it’s worth a shot anyways. At the very least, it’ll give us an idea of how competent these guys are.”

“Yes, senior. I will begin the investigation as soon as possible,” Platinum said with a nod.

“And everyone, listen. Whoever these guys are… they’re dangerous. I don’t think they’ll be targeting Platinum and Y anymore since they already got what they wanted, but we’ll all have to be very careful. We don’t know who these guys are or what they want. So we don’t know when they’ll strike next, and who their next target is, if there are any. But based on what Platinum and Y went through, it seems that these guys know who we are, so it’s likely that we are still their target. Our only option is to remain as vigilant as possible until they strike again. So everyone, be very careful…” Blue slowly put a hand over her heart, as she suddenly had a terrible feeling about all this. “… We’ll _all_ have to be very, very careful…”


	10. Smash and Grab

Chapter 7: Smash and Grab

August 11, Pallet Town, Kanto, 7:30 pm…

“I have contacted my mansion in Sinnoh and told them about what had happened,” Platinum reported as she went to sit down on the empty seat of the couch.

Red’s living room wasn’t fully prepared to seat too many visitors at once, apparently, as the couch and sofa put together offered a total of 5 seats, 7 at best if the visitors were crammed together. Even with Blue and Diamond working in the kitchen to prepare dinner and Y seated on the floor, there was only one seat left for Platinum.

“Okay. I guess all we can do right now is hope that that lead goes somewhere,” Red said with a sigh.

“If senior Blue is right, I assume tracking the transfer to the enemy will take quite some time and effort,” Platinum said. “It is… worrisome.”

“So… what do we do next?” Y asked. “Do we continue the tour around Johto? Cancel those plans and just go home? Or…”

“I guess it’s too dangerous to continue touring Johto,” White said with a sigh.

Platinum shuddered a little as she recalled what her kidnapper had said. … The enemy knew where everyone lived. They knew where Diamond and Pearl lived. And she could not escape the fear that the enemy might ambush her or her friends on the way back to Sinnoh, or attack her friends in their home in Twinleaf Town. She could offer them refuge in her mansion, but her family’s protocols would not allow such a thing. Outsiders were not allowed to stay in her mansion outside of short visits, and certainly not allowed if they were going to be a risk. Getting Diamond and Pearl, who were still definitely outsiders despite how close they may be to Platinum, to stay in the mansion because of a concern that they would be attacked would definitely be considered as bringing risk to the mansion.

“… The enemy knew far too much about us,” she said quietly. “… They knew about Diamond and Pearl… and where they lived. It is safe to assume that the enemy knows about everyone else. If we split up to return home, that would only increase the risk of being attacked.”

“While I doubt I’d be attacked on my way back to Kalos, I agree that we’d be easy pickings if we split up,” Y said. “… I’m worried about X, though. … I mean, the enemy didn’t even demand anything of me. I wasn’t their target, but maybe they were trying to use me to get to someone else. … So if X is a target…”

“I don’t know,” Black said, shaking his head. “Why would he be a target? … Because he has a Mega Ring? But the enemy had literally just captured _two_ people with Mega Rings, and both of you still have them. They clearly didn’t care about that.”

“Yes, that is true,” Platinum said with a nod. “I do not think that X could be a target.”

“… Maybe there aren’t any more Dex Holder targets?” Pearl suggested. “Other than Miss Lady, we’re not really… well… _important_ enough to warrant being a target. Like for Dia and myself, why would the enemy want a couple of comedian hopefuls? Do they really need a comedic relief or something? And from what I’ve heard, they only wanted Miss Lady for the money. Now that they have it, they might not want anything else from us.”

White pondered for a moment. “… I guess that makes sense too. I mean, would the enemy want Pokéstar Studios or BW Agency? If not, they have nothing to gain from me or Black, so…”

“I guess at best, they might want some leverage against the famous professors of each region,” Y suggested. “But… they didn’t even ask anything about them when they captured Miss Platinum, and she works for Professor Rowan. Her father also works for Professor Rowan. So… doesn’t seem like that’s the case either.”

“I’m having a thought here,” Blue said as she came from the kitchen. “The dinner’s almost done, by the way. Dia is just finishing up. So, I overheard you guys talking, and… it’s entirely possible that no other Dex Holders would be targeted. So maybe we should… test them. Starting tomorrow, we should resume the tour of Johto and Kanto. We’ll divide into two groups, so if the enemy do intend on targeting one of us, they’ll be more willing to take the chance than if we were all together in a big group.”

“Isn’t that a bit dangerous, though?” Red asked.

“Yeah. It’s risky, but we can’t be hiding at home forever,” Blue said. “We don’t know if the enemy is actually targeting us, and if so, when they’ll strike. So we’ll just end up hiding at home because of something that may never happen, for an unspecified amount of time. It’s better and faster to lure out the enemy so we can deal with them immediately. And if they don’t attack us, then we’ll know that they aren’t targeting us anymore.”

“I agree, senior,” Platinum said with a nod. “My mother wishes me to return home immediately, but I will not be returning to Sinnoh. If I _hide_ because of this unknown enemy, I must continue to do so until this enemy is no longer a threat, whenever that may be. I will not hide at home because of an uncertainty. And I would certainly like a chance to defeat the enemy for what they have done to me.”

“Dinner is ready!” Diamond called out, clapping his hands.

Red rose to his feet. “All right. Let’s discuss the specifics of what we’re going to be doing after dinner.” He glanced at all of the juniors in his house right now and chuckled. “… And also discuss how everyone is going to be sleeping here tonight. There’s only one bed and that’s occupied, so… most of you will end up sleeping on the floor!”

…

A few hours later, Platinum stretched her tired limbs as she lied down on the couch. With Red and Blue sleeping in the bedroom upstairs, the visiting Dex Holders had to sleep downstairs. And it was decided that the two kidnapped Dex Holders should get to sleep on the couch and sofa, as they had a tiring day, while the others were to sleep on the floor.

And now that she was relaxing, she had time to think. She steadily recalled her horrific kidnapping experience, and what she had to go through. She still didn’t understand how the kidnapper knew so much about her and her friends. Was he really reading her mind? Or was it all a trick, and he was simply using knowledge he already knew to make her think that he was reading her mind?

She put a hand over her chest as she recalled how close things had gotten to _that_. That awful sensation of the tip of the knife slowly cutting her shirt… she never wanted to experience such a thing ever again.

Platinum clenched her teeth as she remembered how she had _broken_ as a result. She thought she was stronger than that, but… she had broken and given in to her kidnapper’s demands. And she even _begged_ for mercy… That shame would never go away, and she could only redeem herself by defeating that kidnapper.

“Lady? Are you okay?” Diamond asked.

Platinum rolled onto her side so that she was lying on her side on the couch while facing Diamond. He was lying on the floor in his sleeping bag while looking over at her with worry.

“Yes. I am okay,” Platinum answered with a smile.

“You seemed to have been trembling. What’s wrong?” He looked into her eyes and saw a glimpse of her feelings. “… Is it because of what those kidnappers did to you?”

Platinum’s expression crumpled a bit, but she slowly nodded. “… Yes…”

Diamond raised a hand up towards the couch and grabbed her hand. “Lady… I noticed that the top of your shirt got a little cut. Did they…”

Platinum gently gripped his hand. “… I think he only did that to break me,” she said quietly.

“So he… _broke_ you?” Diamond asked in surprise. Platinum didn’t answer and simply closed her eyes. Diamond clenched his teeth and gripped her hand a bit tighter. “… We’ll get him back for this, Lady…”

“Yes… that we will…”

Y stretched her arms as she returned to the living room, having gone to the washroom to brush her teeth after waiting for her turn. And immediately, she could see Diamond and Platinum quietly talking amongst themselves while holding hands, and Black and White lying in their sleeping bags facing each other extremely closely as they discussed their plan for the coming days. And with Pearl gone to the washroom to take his turn in brushing his teeth, Y was left alone with these _couples_.

She took out her Pokégear and called X as she sat down on the sofa. But unfortunately, he wasn’t answering. Y checked the time; it was almost 11 pm. So X was either asleep, or busy playing some video game. With a sigh, she sent him a brief message, asking him to call her in the morning once he woke up. She wanted to talk to him right now, but… it couldn’t be helped. She grumbled under her breath and put her Pokégear into her bag and lied down on the sofa. She stretched her arms and legs and pulled the blanket over her, and tried to get some sleep.

…

Next day, August 12, Vaniville Town, Kalos, 10 am…

…

X yawned as he went downstairs towards the kitchen. He took out a bottle of water from the fridge and chugged it. Well, today was another day. Time to do the same things he always did. … Admittedly, it was a bit boring here, now that Y had gone to Kanto. He now didn’t really have any reason to go outside. Tierno, Trevor, and Shauna occasionally came by to check on him, but they didn’t try to drag him outside for some activity.

X checked the time before heading back upstairs. He recalled seeing a message from Y a few hours ago when he woke up from the alarm. But as usual, when he groggily shut it off so that he could wake up to the follow-up alarms, he somehow bypassed all of them and slept for another 3 hours. Wonderful.

He booted up his computer and sat down on the bed as he gave Y a call. He lazily lied down on the bed again and stretched just as Y answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Y. You wanted me to call you?” he asked in a relaxed tone.

Y let out a sigh. “… You’re still in bed, aren’t you? You sound like you’re lying down right now.”

X glanced around. “… Sure seems like it. So… what’s up? How’s Kanto or Johto?”

“X, listen. A lot of stuff happened yesterday,” Y began, her tone deadly serious.

X’s relaxed expression turned rigid and he sat up as Y explained all that had happened yesterday, and the made assumptions of the Dex Holders.

“… Damn…” he muttered as he clenched his hand into a fist. “… So how are you holding up? Are you okay?”

Y momentarily hesitated, as she apparently wasn’t expecting such a question already. “Yeah, I’m fine. … Thanks for asking. … But anyways, I think it’s best if you come over to us as soon as you can. We don’t know who those guys are targeting next, if any, but those who are isolated are naturally at a higher risk.”

“Yeah. All right, I’ll head to Kanto right now.”

“I’ll be going with Miss Platinum, Diamond, and Pearl on a tour around Kanto, so I’ll meet you in Vermillion City. And be careful, X. Be on your guard.”

“Okay. You be careful too.”

X soon hung up and cursed as he quickly hopped off of his bed. To think that Y had been in _serious_ danger in Johto while he was playing a game here in Kalos was very upsetting. Never again. He wasn’t going to sit by while Y was off on her own.

He began the necessary preparations for the journey. It didn’t take him too long to fill a luggage bag full of stuff, and after taking a brief shower, finished dressing and ran out of his house.

X locked the door to his house and was about to send out his Charizard when he saw a small group of people gathered outside Y’s house. And the guy in the front had a Flygon out. … Was the unknown enemy here already?!

X sent out his Charizard and rushed over towards Y’s house. The Charizard hastily followed after briefly checking that it still had its Mega Stone somewhere. But as he got closer, X realized that he was overreacting. For one, it was way too quick for the enemy to be here in Kalos, looking for Y. If she escaped from their clutches yesterday, she couldn’t possibly have returned home to Kalos already. And from what Y had said, the enemy didn’t even seem to be interested in her. Next, the 4 people standing outside Y’s house were all in Sky Trainer suits, so were likely all Y’s schoolmates. And finally, the guy in the lead with the Flygon was knocking on the door politely instead of trying to break it open. So these guys were definitely not an enemy, or someone that X should be concerned around.

He stopped running and walked over towards the group of Sky Trainers. The guy in the lead knocking on the door saw him walking over and turned to face him.

“Hey, are you looking for someone?” X asked as he came to a stop.

“Yes. We’re looking for our senior,” said the leading Sky Trainer.

“Senior? You mean Y?” X asked. “… I didn’t know that Y had juniors in the academy. …Who are you?”

The Sky Trainer took off his helmet, and X noticed with a small mental alarm that this guy was pretty good looking.

“My name is Jeremy, and I’ve been in the same school as senior Y for 4 years now,” he said courteously. “And… who are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

‘ _4 years? Y never told me about this guy before…_ ’ “I’m X, and I’ve been Y’s friend and neighbor for about 10 years,” he said, his voice sounding a bit strict as a result of his wariness. “And if you’re looking for Y, she’s not here right now.”

“Oh. … Can you tell us where she is?” Jeremy asked. “She told me that she would be on a break for a while, but didn’t say how long that would be or where she’d be in that time.”

“She’s currently in the Kanto region,” X said, slightly narrowing his eyes as his suspicion grew. “And I’m on my way to go see her right now.”

Jeremy let out a sigh. “Oh, okay. I guess we’ll have to wait until she returns to Kalos, then.” He gave X a curt nod. “Thank you for letting us know.” He then signaled the other three Sky Trainers, and with their flight-capable Pokémon, they all took flight and flew off somewhere, presumably to the Sky Trainer academy.

X watched them all leave and quickly took out his Pokégear to call Y.

“Hey, X,” she said as she answered the call. “What’s up?”

“I just ran into a handful of Sky Trainers in front of your house,” X said as he watched said group flying in the distance. “They seemed to be looking for you.”

“Oh. Was it Jeremy?” Y asked.

“… Yeah, it was,” X answered, a bit surprised that she mentioned him this quickly. “I don’t think you ever told me about him.”

“Well, there was no reason to,” Y said, either failing to notice or ignoring his slight implication. “I guess I should’ve told him where I was going to be. Oh well. I’ll give him a call right now. Thanks for the heads up, X. And get going. Try to catch the next ferry to Kanto, okay?”

X clenched his teeth a bit. “… Yeah. Okay. I’ll see you in a couple of days.” He hung up and glanced in the direction of the Sky Trainers once more before climbing onto his Charizard. “… Let’s go to Ambrette Town. And quickly.”

…

Next day, August 13, Route 1, Alola, 12 pm…

…

Moon stretched her arms and let out a long yawn before focusing on the documents in front of her. … This little research job was getting pretty boring and time consuming… especially since she was basically doing this alone. With Professor Kukui gone off somewhere probably to do his little pro wrestler gig, Moon was left alone in the research lab, with only Lillie offering assistance. The blonde girl was certainly enthusiastic about helping, but she wasn’t familiar with the research topic, which meant her help was greatly limited.

Moon glanced at her Pokégear. Two days ago, Lady Berlitz had sent her a message, informing her of the recent developments. The fact that the Lady had been kidnapped was disturbing in itself, but the concern that the enemy knew _so much_ about the Dex Holders was definitely alarming. But at least the Lady had successfully escaped and was unharmed. Otherwise, Moon would’ve immediately abandoned her job and headed to the region of Johto to rescue her.

The agreed “directive” was that the younger junior Dex Holders needed to gather and meet up with their seniors for better protection. The Unova Dex Holders were already with their seniors, leaving just Kalos and Alola. But Moon wasn’t really able to simply pick up and leave, as she had to finish her assignment here. Abandoning the job to save the Lady was one thing, but abandoning the job to simply stay safe from an uncertain danger was another. But heeding the warnings from her senior, Moon had asked Sun to stay around until she had finished her task. Currently, he had gone to the nearest marketplace to purchase some food to bring back. And once he returned, she’d have to keep him around to obey the directive.

But she wasn’t entirely sure if it was necessary. An enemy who had kidnapped the Lady for the sake of obtaining a huge amount of money would obviously be planning something big. From the scale of the operation, it certainly wasn’t just a pack of thugs wanting a quick way to get money. These guys had an agenda. But… what would enemies like those want with Sun or herself? She certainly didn’t have anything remotely of interest, and didn’t have any sort of connections or powers. Her only “connection” was that to the Berlitz family, but the enemy had already kidnapped Lady Berlitz only for the money, so… Moon was likely going to be safe.

And for Sun… he had nothing of interest. Maybe if the enemy thought that the two Alola Dex Holders were linked with Aether Foundation and the Ultra Space? … But that would mean Aether Foundation itself would be a target, not the two Dex Holders. So Moon was pretty confident that she was irrelevant in the enemy’s hidden agenda. That said, she still intended to obey the directive and meet up with the senior Dex Holders as fast as possible. That way, she’d be helping them against the enemy. But again, she had to finish the assignment here first, which would take her about… another day or two, maybe?

Moon snapped out of her thoughts when she heard someone knocking on the door. She looked up from the documents she had been staring at for a bit, and blinked a few times to return to reality. … Did Sun return already with the snacks he said he’d be bringing?

Moon rose to her feet and briefly straightened out her clothes before walking over to the front door. But when she opened it, instead of seeing Sun, she a small group of four people, two wearing suits and the other two wearing lab coats.

“… Hello? Can I help you?” she asked, slightly frowning at the unexpected guests.

“Hello, miss,” said the female researcher. “Is this Professor Kukui’s lab?”

“Yes, it is,” Moon answered, as she tried to recall if the professor had told her about incoming guests. But the professor never told her about these things in the past, leaving her to deal with the guests a fair number of times. “But he’s currently not here right now. He’ll be back probably tomorrow.”

“Ah. May we come inside and try to contact him?” the researcher asked. “We have something very important to discuss with him and it would be best if we can contact him as soon as possible.”

“… I suppose.” Moon stepped aside and let the researchers enter.

“Oh, Moon,” said Lillie as she came close. “I finished sorting out the documents like you asked.”

“Thanks, Lillie,” Moon said with a smile. “Could you contact Professor Kukui for me? These guests apparently have some urgent matters to discuss with him.”

“Sure thing.”

Once Lillie went to use the picture phone, Moon went to stay with the guests to keep an eye on them. “This will only take a bit,” she said as she stood around them.

“Oh, miss, we heard that Professor Kukui has developed one of those Pokédex machines that would serve as a home for a Rotom. Is that true?” asked another researcher.

“The Rotom Dex?” Moon asked. “Yes, that’s true.” She walked over towards her bag on the shelf and pulled out her Pokédex. She gave it a light tap on the side to wake up the Rotom inside. “Hey, wake up, would you?”

The screen glowed to life as the Rotom woke up and took control of the device. “Zzt… I’m awake,” came a robotic voice from the speakers. “Hi, Moon, what’s up, zzt?”

“Fascinating! The Rotom is speaking out its thoughts in a comprehensible language?” the female researcher asked.

One of the men wearing the business suit slowly took out a Pokéball, and sent out an Arcanine. “Can the Rotom show us the data it has on this Pokémon?”

“Sure thing, zzt!” the Rotom said as it flew over towards the Arcanine. Its “face” faded away from the screen and Arcanine’s recorded data began to appear. “ _Arcanine, the Legendary Pokémon! There are so many old tales about them that they’re called legendary Pokémon, but there are way more of them than you’d expect._ It’s certainly not as _legendary_ as Necrozma, zzt!”

“Simply incredible!” the lead researcher exclaimed. She took out another Pokéball and sent out a Darmanitan. “How about for Pokémon not found native in the Alola region?”

The Rotom looked at the Darmanitan. There was a slight delay, but its data began to appear on screen again, but in a different format than for the Arcanine. “ _Darmanitan, the Blazing Pokémon. When one is injured in a fierce battle, it hardens into a stone-like form. Then it meditates and sharpens its mind._ ”

“The Rotom Dex has received an upgrade to the National Dex mode,” Moon said, as she turned her head to look at where Lillie had gone. “Lillie? Have you called the professor yet?”

“No,” came her reply. “There’s no signal for some reason. I can’t call anyone else either. Maybe I should reboot the system?”

“Do it,” Moon said with a slight frown. She took out her own Pokégear and tried to call Prof. Kukui, but the call failed as well. She tried to call Sinnoh next, but that also failed. … Were the phones being-

“Zzt! Moon!” the Rotom cried out in alarm.

Moon gasped and quickly swiveled around, just in time to see a giant burst of fire coming straight at her from the Arcanine. Since she had been on guard from the beginning, she reacted quickly and dove to the side, pulling her bag with her at the same time. But she was too close to the Arcanine from the beginning to be able to fully dodge the attack. Even as she was in the air, diving away from the attack, half of the Fire Blast still struck her. Moon screamed as the Fire Blast severely burned her, her clothes now fully engulfed in flames. The explosion caused by the attack’s impact against the bookshelf propelled her further backwards, slamming her head into the far wall.

“Moon?!” Lillie cried out in shock as she quickly ran out into the main room. She gasped as a Darmanitan suddenly appeared in front of her, with one of its giant fists pulled back for a Fire Punch. “Wh – What…” The Darmanitan struck her in the chest with Fire Punch, its power further boosted by its Sheer Force ability.

Lillie gave a muted cough as she was sent flying backwards, her body smashing into the wall with enough force to crack the surface, before crumpling onto the floor. Just a few feet away, Moon lay slumped on the floor, her eyes staring vacantly at her bag. Her vision had tunneled to the point where she could only see her bag. Her hand shakily reached for the Pokéballs that had fallen out of her bag’s open compartment. If she could just get her Toxapex… But her vision was fading quickly, and just as her hand reached her Toxapex’s Pokéball, her consciousness slipped away completely.

The team leader watched as the blonde girl lifelessly collapsed onto the floor, and the targeted Dex Holder lying unconscious and on fire. … Good. There would be no witnesses. He got the Arcanine to spread the fires a bit more, at least to cover up the damages done by Darmanitan’s Fire Punch on the blonde girl. The damages on the girl and the wall would seem suspicious, but would not be visible if everything was completely burnt, as if a massive accidental fire broke out.

“Let’s get out of here, preferably before our suits get damaged in the fire,” he said as he attached a small device onto the Rotom Dex to disable it completely while trapping the Rotom inside.

The group quickly left the burning lab, but just as they stepped outside, they ran into a local boy who was carrying a box of the local food known as a malasada.

“H – Huh?” the boy muttered in shock and horror. The lab was on fire, and four suspicious people had just exited the lab, holding onto an inactive Pokédex. … Were they responsible?!

“No witnesses, go!” the team leader ordered.

The other man in the suit grabbed the boy by his face around the mouth to prevent him from making any sounds and threw him into the burning lab. The box of malasada opened up as the boy was thrown inside, with its contents spilling all over the place. And before the boy even crashed into the burning floor next to the two burning bodies, the Arcanine’s Fire Blast hit him, completely engulfing him in flames as well.

The team leader watched as the boy screamed and flailed a bit before turning away. “Contact HQ and tell them that we’ve accomplished our mission with no complication and no witnesses,” he ordered to one of the researchers. “And then let’s get out of here as fast as we can. People are going to notice the smoke from the fire, and will come to investigate. So let’s move!”

…

“Our team reported in. The Rotom Pokédex is in our possession now.”

“Excellent! Now we only have one objective left.”

“The reports say there were no witnesses, which either means they stole the Rotom Pokédex without being spotted, or all of the witnesses were _removed_.”

“I will assume the latter. These Pokédex Holders generally hold onto their devices pretty tight, so it’d be hard to take it without being noticed. But it doesn’t matter. One way or another, the other Pokédex Holders will be on quite the high alert now. They already seem to be on high alert, with their ‘tour’ around Kanto and Johto, just trying to lure us. And now, once the news reaches them, it’ll be impossible to try to take our final target any time soon. But that’s fine. We’ll need a lot of time to get ready anyways. Until we’re ready, we’ll have to stay low, or throw a decoy so that they’ll think everything is over. But we’ll think of that later.”

“So what should we do now?”

“For now, we’ll need to establish our research room. The Pokédex gives a certain electronic frequency that can be tracked if you have the knowledge. So we’ll need a room that blocks those signals.”

“We’ll get started right away.”


	11. Helpless

Chapter 8: Helpless

August 12, Pallet Town, Kanto, 8 am…

Blue slowly woke up from her sleep, feeling _quite_ relaxed and well-rested, having had a pleasant dream. After that rather uncomfortable sleep last night followed by the stressful kidnapping of her juniors, having such a nice sleep had been tremendously helpful in restoring her mood.

She didn’t sit up yet, as she wanted to enjoy the comfort for longer. … There was a risk that she’d fall right back to sleep if she closed her eyes for an extended period of time, so she’d have to watch out for that. … Although… was falling asleep again so bad? What was the worst that could happen from sleeping in a bit longer? No one would be waiting for her, so…

Blue opened her eyes again as a thought occurred. ‘ _Oh that’s right… the juniors are here too… And they’re going to need food, which they’re not going to make themselves without the homeowner’s permission…_ ’

With a short sigh, she slowly turned to her side, towards the source of warmth lying right next to her… which she had been using as a pillow once again. Red was still fast asleep, lightly snoring with a content smile, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. She stared at his rather adorable expression for a while, delaying having to get up for as much as she could. Her mind wandered towards the conversation she had with Platinum yesterday, and the decision she had to make very soon.

‘ _Does Red actually like me in that way?_ ’ Blue wondered, staring intently at his peaceful expression. ‘ _Or is he simply being very nice to me because he’s just a kind person and we’ve been friends for a long time? … He offered me a place to live when I had nowhere to go. He offered me so much warmth and kindness when I was left alone. I owe him so much. I love him so much. … I might darken his life, but… what if he does like me too? Platinum’s right. I’ll hurt him more by hiding my feelings and fears from him. For better or worse, I should let him know…_ ’ She slowly reached towards Red with her hand, but stopped before her hand could get remotely close to him. She could feel her heart beating a lot faster now as if she was about to deeply regret her decision, and pressed her other hand over her heart. ‘ _… This anxiety can’t be good for me either. If I don’t tell him, I’m greatly hurting myself, and even hurting him too. If I just tell him how I feel, everything might work out for the best. All I have to do is tell him. All I have to do is confess. All I have to do is act…_ ’ With a nervous gulp, she sat up and crawled over closer, with the intent of giving Red a kiss on the cheek, just like she had tried the first morning of her living with him. But once again, she stopped before she could actually kiss him. ‘ _No, no! Wait! I… can’t do this right now! What if he wakes up from the kiss? What do I tell him then? It’ll be so incredibly awkward… I have to look for a better opportunity. Confess first, **then** act. I can’t rush this…_’ Blue clenched her eyes shut and groaned quietly for a bit before she pulled back. ‘ _Damn it…_ ’ She pulled back completely and crawled off of the bed. Putting some distance between herself and Red seemed to have calmed her nerves a bit, at the very least. She glanced at him once again and took a deep breath. ‘ _… But… I’ll tell him sometime today… … or so I tell myself now, but who knows when I’ll actually succeed…_ ’

…

When Blue made it downstairs after getting ready for the day, she found out that not everyone was awake. As usual, White was wide awake, staring blankly out the window as if she had no idea who she was or where she was anymore. Black was fast asleep next to her, snoring as loud as construction equipment.

Diamond was happily sleeping away still, while Pearl looked as if he was contemplating on whether he should plug his ears or Black’s throat. Blue had no idea when the two boys usually woke up, but from Pearl’s expression, he appeared to have been awake for quite some time, while Diamond looked as if he could stay asleep until the afternoon. Platinum remained fast asleep on the couch, and appeared to be in deep sleep still. Given what the heiress had gone through, it was probably best to leave her be until she woke up on her own. Y was still asleep as well, as she had gone through the same thing. Blue decided to leave those two alone.

“Morning,” Pearl greeted, impatience embedded in his voice.

White finally noticed that Blue had come downstairs and smiled at her. “Good morning.”

“Good morning, you two,” Blue said with a wave, keeping her voice down. “I thought I should wake up so I don’t keep the juniors waiting around, but from the looks of things, I think I could’ve gotten another few hours of sleep.”

“I would’ve died of hunger if you did that,” White said with a groan. “If all three competent chefs are asleep, breakfast is doomed. And I normally get breakfast two hours ago.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll get started on breakfast,” Blue said with a chuckle. “Maybe the ruckus and the smell of food would wake up the others, huh?”

“Hold on a sec,” Pearl said as he moved next to Diamond. “Hey, Dia! Food’s getting cold!”

Diamond slowly opened his eyes and sat up. “Huh? What? … Food? Where?”

“… I can’t believe that worked,” White muttered. She moved to sit beside Black and shook him by the shoulders. “Hey Black, the Pokémon League Association wants to interview you!” Unfortunately for her, Black remained fast asleep and kept snoring as loud as a jackhammer. “… Rats. Didn’t work.”

“Let me fix that.” Pearl walked over towards him and smacked him across the face in the same fashion as he’d hit Diamond during one of the comedy acts. “Wake up, you loud prick!”

Black’s eyes snapped open and he quickly sat up, rubbing his throbbing cheek. “… Ow… I’m up, I’m up…”

“… What is all this commotion about?” Platinum asked as she groggily sat up, appearing to be half asleep still.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Miss Lady,” Pearl said. “I didn’t mean to wake you. But now that you are… good morning!”

“Good morning,” Platinum said despite not opening her eyes. She tiredly stretched her arms and rubbed at her eyes before opening them to a squint.

“How are you feeling, Platinum?” Blue asked as she sat next to her.

“I am feeling fine, senior. Thank you for your concern,” Platinum said with a smile, forcing herself to open her eyes to full. She put her glasses on and gave her senior a polite bow. “Good morning, senior. Did you have a pleasant sleep?”

Blue smiled embarrassedly. “Yep. Sure did! Now, once you’re ready, come to the kitchen so we can make breakfast.”

“Yes, senior.”

Now that there was just one person left sleeping… White plopped onto the couch where Y was still asleep, deliberately sitting on her feet. “Rise and shine, sleepyhead! Everyone else is up!”

“… Leave me alone,” Y mumbled in her sleep, pulling the blanket up higher.

White poked her in the leg. “Wake up! Wake up! I’ll keep doing this until you get up!”

“… Oh, eat my ass. I had a lot of sh*t happen to me yesterday,” Y grumbled as she turned away.

White rolled her eyes. “Someone’s certainly grumpy. Such respect for your senior, huh?”

“Y, wake up, please,” Platinum said calmly.

There was a pause before Y let out a long groan. “Ungh… okay, okay… … There goes the dream…” She slowly sat up and kicked White off of her feet and off the couch. “Get off me.”

White let out a huff and rose to her feet. “Well, come on. Let’s go help with the breakfast setup.”

…

Y tried to peek around her seniors’ shoulders to see what was happening. The kitchen wasn’t that big to start with, and with _three_ people making breakfast, it looked pretty cramped. And Y really wanted to see what the chefs were doing, so that she could learn and maybe one day, be much better at making food. The best way to learn by seeing was to watch Diamond, but with Platinum and Blue standing next to him to watch the _master_ at work, Y couldn’t see anything.

“The noodle is ready,” Platinum soon declared as she turned around to face Y. “Here you go.”

Y quickly received the large plate filled with tasty looking rice noodles and quickly made her way towards the dinner table where the hungry Dex Holders were waiting. The dinner table wasn’t big enough for all 8 Dex Holders currently present, so they had to divide into two groups. One group would get to sit at the dinner table. The other would have to sit on the floor in the living room, using the small table there. And it was decided that the Unova and Kalos Dex Holders would get to sit on the floor while their seniors got the dinner table. There were only 4 chairs, so Blue’s Ditto would have to transform into one for its trainer.

Black and White temporarily joined Red and Pearl at the dinner table so they could get their share of the noodles. They left half of the noodles untouched for the chefs and the delivery girl, and divided up the remainder amongst themselves.

White lifted a couple of noodle strands and moved them towards her mouth, with the intent of savoring the taste and to take her time enjoying it while she waited for the rest of the food to arrive. Black, however, gathered all of his portion into a ball and stuffed the whole thing into his mouth at once, immediately filling his cheeks.

White stared at him in shock for a bit before she slowly shook her head. “Sheesh. Take it easy, Black. No one’s going to _steal_ your food, you know.”

Black suddenly cringed and began to rapidly tap the table with his hand.

“Careful, it’s quite hot,” Blue called out from the kitchen.

Red chuckled as he watched Black suffering from the consequences of his actions. “Yep. Someone definitely noticed.”

White rolled her eyes. “Well… you reap what you sow, I guess.” She saw the tears in Black’s eyes and sighed. “… _Enjoying_ your food there, Black?”

Black squeezed his eyes shut in pain but nodded. “It’s so good but… it burns,” he mumbled out eventually. “… And I’m still hungry…”

Thankfully, before too long, the chefs and the delivery girl came back carrying the rest of the breakfast, allowing the hungry Dex Holders to get their desired share of food.

Once breakfast ended, the boys took their turns in getting ready for the day while the girls cleaned up. White and Y were on the cleaning detail, letting Blue and Platinum relax on the couch.

“So, what’s the plan now?” Red asked as he went to sit next to them, having finished his preparations. “Are we all going to Viridian together before one group splits off to Johto, or do we all travel together to Saffron before splitting?”

“Hmm… well, we’ll need to get some supplies in Viridian City first, so maybe we should decide there,” Blue suggested.

“All right, then.” Red stretched his limbs and let out a long yawn. “Let’s hope this trip goes better than the last one, huh?”

“We will have to be more vigilant,” Platinum said. She glanced at Blue a bit and over towards the kitchen, where White and Y were busy cleaning the dishes. With Black in the washroom and Diamond and Pearl doing some comedy practice just outside the house, there was no one else within hearing range right now. Platinum smiled warmly at Red. “Senior Red, I believe senior Blue has something _important_ to tell you,” she said as she rose to her feet, intending to give her seniors some privacy.

“Hm? Really?” Red said as he looked over at Blue.

Blue jumped in surprise as she realized what just happened and quickly grabbed Platinum by her wrist, holding her in place. ‘ _Oh no, no, no. This is way too sudden! I can’t say it right now! Damn it, Platinum!_ ’ “Oh, it’s… um… nothing, really,” she stammered out.

“Well, what is it?” Red asked.

Blue held onto Platinum’s wrist tighter and pulled her down so that she’s sit back on the couch. “Well… um… … It’s really nothing. Just a silly little thought.”

“… Let’s hear it,” Red said again, smiling at her.

Blue gulped nervously. “… Well…” She cringed a bit and gripped her hands tight as she failed to muster enough courage yet again. “… S – Suppose Platinum and I are both in trouble at the same time in front of you. … Which of us you save, if you could only save one?”

Platinum frowned as this was certainly not what she expected (and her wrist was hurting), and Red looked quite surprised at a question that he never anticipated either.

“… Huh,” he said as he began to think.

Blue let out an embarrassed chuckle. “See? Just a… silly little thought…”

“Hmm… You know, that’s the kind of question that’ll keep me up at night,” Red said as he frowned. “I… really don’t know.”

Blue put a hand on his knee. “I think… you should save Platinum in that kind of situation. You know. Save the juniors.”

Red stared at her in surprise, and tried to gauge her reaction. After a few uncomfortable seconds, he shook off the troubled expression and smiled. “Well, that’s all hypothetical anyways. I’ll make sure that kind of thing doesn’t happen to either of you. And if it happens anyways, I’ll make sure to save both of you at the same time!”

Blue let out a sigh of relief. “That’s the spirit, Red.” She realized that she was still holding onto Platinum’s wrist (pretty tight) and quickly let go. “… Hey Platinum, can you come and help me pack up now?”

Platinum rubbed her sore wrist and clenched her hand a few times to get the circulation back to her fingers. “Certainly, senior.”

Blue got off of the couch and headed upstairs. “… That was too close,” she whispered once she was out of Red’s hearing range.

“Senior, I fail to see the purpose in your query,” Platinum said as she followed her. “And I also do not understand the purpose of your response.”

Blue shuddered. “Platinum… don’t do that again. I wasn’t ready, okay? And this… this isn’t the right moment either. I’m going to tell him today, but I can’t just… _blurt_ it out. I have to build up to it.”

“… I understand, senior. And I apologize,” Platinum said with a sigh.

“Thanks for trying though. And for your concern. At least you weren’t as blunt and blatant as _those two_ ,” Blue said, referring to White and Y. ‘ _But… now Red knows that I’m keeping something from him. He’ll want to talk to me about this sooner or later. … So… it looks like I took my first step towards a confession, without me wanting to… So maybe this whole thing would work out for the best?_ ’

…

August 13, Route 1, Alola, 12:30 pm…

…

Sun leaned over to the side of the Ride Pokémon and checked inside the plastic bag he had strapped to the side. The ordered snack (more like meal, given the amount…) looked to be in perfect condition still, ensuring that the customer would be fully satisfied with the delivery. … Even though he figured that the _customer_ wouldn’t really show said satisfaction. She wasn’t really the type to express such a thing.

An hour ago, Moon asked him to get her something good to eat while she was still stuck working away in Prof. Kukui’s lab. Even though Hau was going to come by and deliver some malasada to her and Lillie, Moon had said that she preferred something a bit… _less Alola_. So now here he was, delivering a nicely packed fruit salad, a few burgers, and some doughnuts. He figured that she’d greatly appreciate some Sinnoh stuff, but there were no such things within arm’s reach in this region. Not that he had an inkling of what even was “Sinnoh stuff” anyways. Well, he’d find out shortly if he had somehow failed this very unspecific errand quest. … Hopefully not, as he’d rather not anger Moon any more than necessary.

As he approached the route, he could see a thick pillar of smoke reaching up to the sky. … Did a campfire go out of control or something? Sun eyed the smoke as the Ride Tauros kept running. And before too long, he realized that the smoke was coming from Kukui’s lab.

Sun tapped his Ride Pokémon to go faster. There was no reason for smoke to be coming from the lab. Certainly not _this_ much, at the very least. This amount of smoke could only mean that the whole lab was on fire. Was it an accident?

He could feel the heat of the fire on his face before he could see the burning lab. And the moment the Tauros turned around the edge of the forest to get a clear view of the lab, Sun realized that this couldn’t have been an accident. The lab was completely engulfed in flames all around. An accidental fire had the strongest flames in the source of the accident, and parts of the building would’ve been unscathed as the fire wouldn’t have spread there yet. But the lab was completely engulfed, as if the source of the fire was all around the lab.

Sun snapped out of his shock when he realized that no one was standing outside. So were Moon and Lillie still… in there? And where was Hau? He would’ve gotten here by now, so was he… also in _there_?

Sun quickly sent out his Wishiwashi. “Baht, put the fire out as fast as you can!”

The school of Wishiwashi shot forth a huge burst of water at the burning lab to try to douse the flames out. The entire structure had been drastically weakened, so the water ended up punching a hole through the wall.

Sun ran up towards the large hole and peeked inside. Because the roof was starting to fall apart, the inside of the lab wasn’t filled with smoke, so he should be able to breathe (albeit just a bit) while inside. He took a few breaths to ready himself before entering the burning lab.

“Miss Customer?! Are you in here?!” he yelled out while keeping low to avoid the smoke. He soon noticed a small wet trail that led from around the corner and away from the strong flames. He followed that trail towards what used to be the living room. And there, he spotted Moon lying crumpled on the floor near the corner, with her Toxapex and Vikavolt lying next to her.

Sun quickly crouched next to her to check on her condition. Her lab coat had burned off completely along with most of her clothes, and her skin was covered all over with severe burns, though some burns were wrapped up with a thick layer of string. So it seemed that her Vikavolt had tried to wrap up some of her injuries with String Shot. The Vikavolt itself wasn’t moving, however. Its wings had scorched off and it had severe burns everywhere as well. Did it try to fan the flames away with its wings, until flaming debris collapsed onto it from the ceiling? And it now lay immobile on the floor, its carapace burnt and its whole body rigid as a rock.

Sun put a hand on Moon’s bare burned shoulder and could feel moisture. Her Toxapex had doused her with water it seems, probably to put out the fire that engulfed her. And it must have tried to fight the fire in the vicinity as well in order to save its trainer, until it was dehydrated to the point of no return. Its bunker-shell legs were limp and lifeless and it simply lay on the floor like a severed mop head as it didn’t have the strength to stay upright anymore. What little water was left in its body was leaking out, creating the faint wet trail that Sun had spotted upon entry.

He carefully lifted the Toxapex up to see its face. Its front legs sagged away to reveal its main body and it managed to look up at him. Upon recognizing him, it let out a faint sigh-like sound and smiled faintly, as if it was glad that it had succeeded in its final job. Sun frowned as what little tension he felt in its body had faded away. The Toxapex was now completely limp.

“… You did well…” Sun mumbled as he set the Toxapex on top of its trainer.

Moon let out a faint gasp from the contact, but remained unconscious. She had to get out of his place and get medical attention as soon as possible in order to survive. Sun grabbed her partly scorched bag and gently lifted the girl onto his arms. He glanced at the Vikavolt, wishing that he could pull it out of the burning house as well. But the Vikavolt was too big and too heavy for him to carry along with Moon and Toxapex.

The hole in the wall was bigger than when he first entered, which made it easier for him to escape the burning lab despite carrying Moon in his arms. When he reached the outside again, he could see that a bunch of firefighters and medical staff have arrived, having seen the massive pillar of smoke. The firefighters were busy trying to extinguish the flames while the medical staff stood by, waiting. And upon spotting Sun and Moon, they rushed over to assist.

Sun allowed them to take Moon and Toxapex off of his arms, and he followed them away from the burning mess. He watched as the medical staff loaded Moon onto an ambulance and began the emergency treatment. Sun eventually turned his attention back to the burning lab, whose fires were mostly extinguished, and saw other medical staff carrying two stretchers, each with a body and a white blanket pulled all the way up. … Were those two…

Sun ran towards the stretchers and reached for the white blanket. A medic stopped him before he could make contact, however.

“You don’t want to see what happened,” she warned.

“Yeah. It’s… not pretty,” said another medic. “Are you related to any of these people?”

Sun glanced at Moon in the ambulance and the two bodies on the stretcher. “They’re… my friends. … I was bringing food for them…”

“We’ll have to contact the next of kin for these two. Do you know their contact information?”

“… Yes…”

…

A couple of hours later…

…

Sun waited outside of Moon’s hospital room, sitting on a chair and waiting for something to happen. A few doctors had gone into the room over the past couple of hours, and from what he could gather, it sounded promising. Moon would likely regain consciousness pretty soon. And once she was awake, he would finally be able to find out what exactly happened. What happened in the lab was definitely not an accident. And Moon was the only survivor so she was the only one who could possibly know what happened. But after that… then what? What would she do next?

The door opened and the doctor came outside. He approached Sun and cleared his throat, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“She’s awake. If you want to go talk to her, you can. But she needs to rest so try to keep it brief. And… try to comfort her too. A lot had happened.”

“Okay. I’ll do that,” Sun said, getting up to his feet. Cheer up Moon? … A lot easier said than done, especially if she wasn’t in the mood to be cheered up. And he figured that she would _not_ be in the mood at all right now.

“Good luck to you,” the doctor said as he walked off to tend another patient.

Sun opened the door to her room and stepped inside. He saw her almost covered in bandages but still sitting upright on her bed, staring blankly at the stretcher next to her bed. More specifically, she was staring at the bodies of her Vikavolt and Toxapex, lying immobile on the stretcher. Sun moved to sit on the chair next to the bed and tried to block her vision with himself.

“Miss Customer, are you… okay?” he asked, waving a hand in front of her face.

Moon didn’t focus on him and kept staring blankly at the stretcher. She slowly raised a heavily bandaged hand, shakily pointing at it. Sun let out a sigh and reached towards the stretcher. He reluctantly picked up the dry stiff body of Toxapex and handed it over.

Moon held it in her bandaged arms and stared at it, her mouth slightly open. Her visible expression soon crumpled and she began to tremble violently, as if the situation was finally fully registered in her mind. She held the Toxapex close to her heart and buried her face into its lifeless body. And even though Sun was right there, watching her, she rapidly broke down into tears.

Sun put a hand on her shoulder as he could hear her muffled wails, trying to think of ways to get her to calm down. Maybe hearing some good news would help her, but… what good news? All he had was more bad news.

There was a sudden, loud commotion outside the door. Before Sun could walk over to check what was happening, the door burst open and Gladion barged in, looking quite haggard and very, very pissed. He momentarily stopped in his steps as he saw Moon silently crying into the body of her Toxapex, but still stormed over while the nurses tried to get him out of there.

“Lillie,” he said, his anger preventing him from saying more than a few words at a time. “What. Happened. To her?”

“… I don’t know,” Sun said, since all he knew was what Gladion already knew. “I was on my way to deliver some food and when I got there…”

Gladion glared at Moon next, but visibly hesitated as he couldn’t and shouldn’t be directing his anger at her. He took a few quick breaths to try to calm down. “… Then… what happened to you?”

Moon didn’t respond and kept her face buried in her Toxapex, as if trying to hide her unending tears. Sun put a hand on her trembling shoulder again.

“Miss Customer… that wasn’t an accident, was it?” he asked, phrasing it so that she only had to nod or shake her head to respond.

Moon shook her head, indicating that what happened was indeed not an accident.

Gladion ran his hands through his hair and glared at the two. “… You two are coming with me to Aether right now.”

…

Several hours later, Aether Foundation, 10 pm…

…

Moon stared out the window, quietly looking into the pitch darkness. Her body ached all over being forcefully transported to Aether Foundation instead of resting at a hospital, but she didn’t care. She had calmed down a little during the trip to Aether, and now, after she had explained all that had happened in the lab, her sorrows were steadily being replaced by a single, cold determination.

She looked down at her bag on the floor next to her. The bag was severely burnt in quite a few places, destroying a lot of the stuff inside, including her spare clothes. So she was currently stuck wearing an Aether Foundation uniform that was provided to her. And she really didn’t like it. She would have to go to the clothes store soon and get a replacement.

… And speaking of _replacements_ … Moon closed her eyes as she thought about her beloved Toxapex, and how it had _sacrificed_ itself to save her. Her Vikavolt sacrificed itself as well, but the pain of losing a Poison type was too much to handle. She now only had two Pokémon. And she didn’t know if she had it in her to get more. But… she had to, if she wanted to fight back against her enemies.

An investigation was currently underway to find those responsible for the tragedy. The Kahunas and Trial Captains were on the lookout for any suspicious research staff, and were particularly vigilant on harbor cities that connected Alola to the other regions. And in the meantime, Aether Foundation was using its technological advantage to try to locate the signal of the Rotom Dex. Even though most of its scanners were designed to locate Ultra Beast frequencies, they only needed slight adjustments to locate other signals. Unfortunately, no one knew the specific frequencies of a Rotom Dex, so had to extrapolate using the signals of a regular Alola Pokédex, which greatly hindered accuracy.

Moon clenched her hands into fists. … If only there was a person who was technologically capable enough to determine the exact frequency of the Rotom Dex… There _was_ one person who she was aware of, but that person was all the way in Kanto. And talking to her about this problem would inevitably spread the news to-

“Miss Customer?” came Sun’s voice from behind.

Moon slowly turned to face him, her expression still quite _scary_ , as some would say. “What?” she said, her voice still weak and hoarse.

Sun visibly flinched at her cold expression. “Uh… well, there’s a room fully prepared for you now. So come on, let’s go.”

Moon didn’t move. “… I’m not going there.”

“Huh? … Okay then. Where are you going to sleep?”

“I’m going back to Melemele Island,” Moon said, picking up her bag.

“Wait, what?” Sun yelled as he quickly stepped in front of her to stop her from going anywhere. “… What are you going to do in Melemele? Are you going to look for this enemy?”

“Of course I will,” Moon replied.

“You can’t expect to be able to find and chase this enemy right now, do you?” Sun asked. “I mean… how are you even going to find them in the first place? I don’t think you’ll do a better job than all of Aether Foundation. And even if you do find them… what then? How are you going to fight them?”

Moon clenched her teeth in a sudden burst of anger, caused by her own helplessness and uselessness being exposed. “… I’m not going to just _stay_ here and do nothing! Not after what they did to me!”

“… We’ll have to contact your other Dex Holder friends,” Sun suggested. “With their help, we might be able to-”

“No!” Moon shouted hastily, so quickly that she began to cough violently from straining her injuries. “No… we can’t tell the others… we must not…”

“Why not? You can’t expect to accomplish anything all by yourself. We’ll need help.”

Moon shook her head. “No. We can’t let any of them know about what happened… lest _she_ finds out. I can’t let _her_ find out about what happened to me.”

“… Who?” Sun asked. He soon realized who she was referring to, and frowned, wondering _why_. “But… why not her?”

Moon glared at him again. “ _No_. … I want to make her proud, damn it. Not disappoint her with my failures and inabilities or make her worried about my well being. While I can’t keep this thing hidden from her forever, I can’t let her find out about this while I’m in this pathetic state.”

“… So then what are you going to do? You don’t know how to find the enemy. You can’t physically fight either. So what can you do by leaving Aether Foundation?”

Moon cursed under her breath and looked down in shame. “I… … I have to get stronger. I’ll have to do a lot of training as fast as possible. And then someday soon, I will get my revenge.”


	12. For Her Heart

Chapter 9: For Her Heart

August 12, Viridian City, Kanto, 1 pm…

Yellow looked up at the sky, wondering if the others have arrived yet. She had heard from Crystal what happened over in Johto, with the train being derailed and Platinum and Y ended up getting kidnapped. It was all very concerning and shocking, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it, since by the time she found out, it was all over. All she could do was just keep her guard up in case something like that happens to her or anyone nearby.

She was really worried about Red. She wanted to know if he was okay. From Crystal’s account, everyone seemed to be fine, but Yellow wanted to see for herself. And while she could head on to Pallet Town to visit Red, she found out that everyone in Pallet Town were on their way to Viridian City, so she could just meet up with them here. And since Pallet Town wasn’t that far away, everyone would be getting here any time now.

She waited by the Pokémon Center, pacing around, until she could hear familiar voices in the distance. And it sounded like… screaming?! Yellow quickly ran towards the source of the sound and could soon see what was going on. She immediately stumbled in her steps and almost tripped as the tension and concern immediately left her.

For some reason, White was riding Platinum’s Rapidash, holding onto it for dear life as it galloped around at its top speed, while its trainer looked on in amusement. The Rapidash lifted its front legs and suddenly kicked upwards, sending White flying off backwards and into Black’s arms.

“Ha! You suck!” Y said with a laugh.

“Ugh. One day, I’ll be better at this,” White said with a huff. “And then I’ll wipe that smirk off your face.”

Y stuck her tongue out at her. “Not until you can do a handstand on top of it, like I can!” She glanced over as she noticed Yellow walking over and waved at her. “Oh, hi, Yellow!”

“Hey Yellow,” Red said with a wave as well.

Yellow waved at everyone and quickly made her way over. “I heard White screaming and I thought something bad happened!”

White scratched at her cheek embarrassedly. “Um… whoops.”

“So… are all of you okay?” Yellow asked, glancing at everyone but looking at Red the longest. “I heard what happened yesterday.”

“We’re all doing fine,” Blue said with a smile.

“Now, we’re going to need to do some shopping here before we move on,” Red said. “Half of us are going to be touring Kanto while the other half tours Johto. Want to come with us?”

“Oh, that sounds pretty fun and I would absolutely love to, but I need to take care of the Viridian Gym,” Yellow said with a frown. “Maybe I can get permission for a little break, though. I’ll have to ask…”

“I don’t see why he wouldn’t let you,” Red said. “Give it a try.”

“Hmm… yeah. Okay. I’ll give him a call,” Yellow said. “And I’ll meet you back at the Pokémon Center?”

“Sure. We’ll wait for you,” Red said.

Yellow nodded and headed towards the Viridian City Gym, while waving. This was great! Come to think of it, she had never actually traveled anywhere with Red before, and now was the chance!

“So… who does what, now?” White asked.

Blue fished out the shopping list. “Okay. Some of us are going to need to go to the grocery store and get food supplies. And some of us are going to have to go to the general store for things like flashlights, blankets, and other stuff we’ll need for camping.”

“We’ll take the food shopping,” Diamond said immediately.

“Then Y and I will take the general store,” White said.

Blue glanced at the list again. “… Okay, I guess that’s it, then. The rest of us will just wait by the Pokémon Center.” She split the list in half and gave one to Diamond and the other to White.

“Okay then. See you soon! Come on, Y. And you too, Black. I need you!” White said as she headed towards the general store.

“Huh? … Okay,” Black said as he followed.

“Wait, why did you pick me for this?” Y asked.

“Because you have more money than I do!”

“What?! … Hey! We’re splitting the bill!”

Platinum watched her juniors heading towards the general store and stepped towards her friends. “Well then. Shall we get going as well?”

“Sure thing, Miss Lady.”

The Sinnoh Dex Holders left towards the grocery store, leaving Red and Blue by themselves.

“Well, that was fast,” Red said with a chuckle. “Come on, then. Let’s just… get something to drink or something while waiting.”

“Yeah… all right,” Blue said with an awkward smile. ‘ _I’m all alone with him. Is it my chance now? … But… isn’t this still too sudden?_ ’

…

For a long while, Red and Blue waited outside the Pokémon Center, leaning against the side wall and chatting amongst themselves. They were mostly talking about the various things they’d do while touring Kanto with Black and White, as Blue was careful to not let the conversation steer into a _particular_ direction. But the conversation was pretty stale, as Red wasn’t exactly participating in it, as if his mind was elsewhere at the moment. Blue considered it a good thing for now, as it meant that there was no risk that Red would ask about what happened this morning. And she wasn’t ready for such a question.

Red glanced in the direction Platinum had gone, wondering when the heiress would be coming back. There was something he wanted to ask her, and in private. Of course, he could ask Blue as well, but given what happened this morning, he was pretty sure that she wouldn’t tell him the truth anyways. But Platinum wouldn’t lie to him. So his plan was to talk to her first, and decide then what to do next.

His curiosity and hastiness soon got the better of him. If Platinum was on her way back, he’d intercept her. If she was still in the store, he could find her and drag her outside so that he could talk to her in private. Either way, he wanted to go and talk to her right now.

“Hold on, Blue. I want to get some kind of snack from the grocery store,” he said, interrupting whatever Blue was currently talking about. “Do you want something too?”

“Huh? Um… no, that’s okay,” she said with a slight shake of her head. “You go ahead. I’ll just wait here by myself.”

“I won’t be gone long,” Red said as he started to jog towards the grocery store.

By the time he got close to the grocery store, he could see the Sinnoh Dex Holders heading back towards the Pokémon Center. Perfect. The three Dex Holders saw him approach and looked at him, as if wondering why he was jogging towards them.

“Hey Platinum, can I talk to you for a moment?” Red asked once he was close enough.

“Oh? Yes, of course, senior.” Platinum gave the shopping bag she was carrying to Diamond and followed Red as he led her away somewhere. “Is something wrong, senior?”

“No, no. I just wanted to ask you something in private,” Red said, once he was far enough away from the grocery store. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. This morning, you said that Blue had something important to tell me. But she didn’t tell me anything. She just asked me a really weird and difficult question and that was it. So… can you tell me what exactly she wanted to say?”

Platinum looked quite surprised at the question, but also deeply troubled at the request and squirmed on her feet. “Um… I am terribly sorry, senior, but… I do not think this is something you can hear from me. I believe you must hear this from senior Blue before anyone else.” She let out a short sigh. “… I must not intervene in this matter either. … It is of vital importance and I am not sure if senior Blue can manage to tell you, but…”

“Are you sure you can’t tell me yourself?” Red asked again with a frown. “I won’t tell anyone, and no one’s listening, so…”

Platinum put on a pained expression as she slowly shook her head. She lowered her head and cast a quick glance at his expression. He seemed to be quite worried now, as expected. It seemed that she was steadily becoming quite an actress, as she learned how to exaggerate, hide, or fake expressions properly. “… Are you worried, senior?” she asked abruptly, aiming to catch him off guard.

As expected, Red looked surprised from the question. “Well… of course I am. It sounds like she has something really important she needs to say, but she can’t for whatever reason. If that kind of thing eats away at her from inside… who knows how bad it’ll get. And why can’t she just tell me? Is it something related to me? Does she want to move out again?”

“Are you concerned that she might move out?”

“Yeah. I know she has nowhere else to go. I didn’t want her to live alone in some rundown shack of a secret base, so I offered her to live with me. I did that so she could be happy and safe. If she wanted to move out again… did I do something wrong, or what?”

Platinum carefully gauged her senior’s expression. “… Do you like living with her, senior?”

Red was briefly stunned yet again from the question, as he had been too concerned about the possibility of Blue wanting to move out. Not that that was confirmed, anyways. “… I never thought about it, but…” He thought for a bit about the time he spent with Blue in his house once she moved in. Sure, the first few days were a bit awkward, as they figured out who does what around the house and who gets to shower when. The last thing he wanted to do was walk in on Blue taking a shower or when she was getting dressed. And so far, thanks to vigilance on both their parts, no such incidents occurred. Then there was a bit of a mess involving clearing out the basement to build Blue’s little workshop down there, but that little renovation was pretty fun.

Red focused on his memories, but he couldn’t think of a single time when he was annoyed that he wasn’t living alone anymore. He was actually very glad that she moved in with him. He was happy. And as he remembered, he could tell that Blue was very happy too. Her smiles and laughs were genuine, instead of having a sense of exaggeration from before. Years ago, he’d often see her looking very depressed, but then quickly lighten up when someone talked to her. But now, he always found her happy. And seeing her so happy made him feel… _great_.

“… Yeah. I’m really happy to be living together with her. I don’t want her to go. If she was to move out… I’d be very worried about her but also… it’ll be awfully empty at home and I would miss her greatly.”

Platinum briefly considered in asking the critical question, but decided against it. It wasn’t her place to interfere, and asking such a question would tell Red too much as well. She simply smiled brightly and looked up at him. “Then I believe that you have nothing to fear, senior. Senior Blue wishes to stay with you. But if those are your true feelings, then you must talk to her, and convince her to be honest.”

Red let out a sigh of relief. “Should I go talk to her now?”

“The sooner you do, the happier you will be, senior, and happier she will be as well,” Platinum said enthusiastically. “I wish you good luck, senior. And please make her happy.”

She gave him a polite bow and walked off to go find and intercept White and Y, while also sending a message to Diamond and Pearl to get away from Blue so that she could have a private conversation. Red watched her walking away and slowly shook his head with a chuckle. Did the heiress get him worried for no other reason than to get him to say his feelings? She had gotten him worried and then told him that he had nothing to worry about afterwards. Was she learning how to manipulate others, now? Interesting…

Red headed back towards the Pokémon Center to find Blue, and found her standing by the wall where he left her a few minutes ago. It appeared that Diamond and Pearl had gone inside the building for whatever reason, leaving Blue alone and thus allowing Red to have a private conversation with her.

“Hey, I’m back,” he said as he leaned against the wall next to her.

“Welcome back,” Blue said with a smile, turning to face him. “Did you get what you wanted?”

“No. They didn’t have anything I wanted,” Red lied with a wave of a hand. His expression suddenly turned serious, making her feel a bit nervous. “But Blue, I wanted to ask you something. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now… What was it that you wanted to tell me this morning?”

Blue jumped in surprise and looked even more nervous than before. “I – It’s nothing, really!”

“It’s clearly more than nothing,” Red said, observing her expression. “And the weird question you asked me… that clearly wasn’t what was on your mind, back then.”

Blue pressed her hands over her chest as her heart started to race. She started to feel kind of sick as the anxiety ate away at her. “Red… I… i – it’s nothing… really…”

Red put his hands on her shoulders. “Look, whatever it is, it’s clearly eating you up inside. You can’t keep this bottled up inside forever.”

Blue looked into his eyes with an incredibly pained expression. “… Please… don’t make me say it…”

He slowly grabbed her hands and gently massaged them, much to her surprise. She seemed to be relaxing a bit, but still looked like she was going to be sick. “This is really hurting you. I really do care about you. And I’m worried about you. … I want you to be happy, Blue. And I want to see you happy.”

Blue closed her eyes shut and lowered her head. Her breathing rapidly became erratic as her fears grew bigger and bigger, to the point where she was about to have a panic attack. “… I… can’t…” she choked out, trembling quite a lot as tears began to roll down her cheeks.

Red frowned as he certainly didn’t expect her to react like this. … What was so hard about what she had to say that she was breaking down like this? What was she so afraid of? He contemplated whether he should abort and try again at a later date, but… there was no guarantee that Blue would ever say what was on her mind, regardless of when he brought this up again. And this was clearly hurting her deeply. The longer he waited, the longer it would hurt her. No. He had to resolve this now.

…

Yellow lightly hummed as she skipped towards the Pokémon Center. She had been given permission to take a break, and so she was allowed to go with Red on a journey! She didn’t know what exactly she’d be doing with him and who else would be with them on the journey, but that didn’t really matter. All that mattered was that she would be able to spend a lot of quality time with him, and have a lot of fun too.

She turned towards the Pokémon Center and immediately stumbled as she rapidly tried to stop. She could see the structure in the distance and Red and Blue standing outside, leaning against the wall, and _holding hands_. Yellow quickly regained balance and hid behind the nearest building. She carefully peeked around the corner and focused on her vision. She couldn’t hear what was going on, but she _had_ to see this.

She had never seen Red holding anyone’s hands before. And had never seen Blue with this kind of expression before either. Which meant… something absolutely unprecedented was happening. And Yellow could only hope that this wasn’t going where she feared was going.

Meanwhile, Platinum peeked around the corner from afar, and could see Red and Blue talking closely by the Pokémon Center. Yep. Things seemed to be going as planned. Now it was all up to them. With a content smile, the heiress turned away as she didn’t want to spy on her seniors, and waited for White and Y to arrive. The two girls would be returning from this street from the general store, and she intended to block them so they did not interfere or spy on their seniors.

Sure enough, White and Y soon appeared from around the corner, with their pack mule Black carrying a dozen shopping bags in his hands.

“We’re back, Lady Platinum,” White said happily once she was close enough.

“Sorry we took too long,” Y said as well. “Red and Blue must be tired of waiting for us. Come on, let’s go meet up with them.”

Platinum raised a hand to stop them. “Not yet.”

“Huh? Why?” White asked. But despite the total lack of information, she immediately caught on. “Oh, is _something big_ happening?”

“Then we have to see!” Y said excitedly, quickly catching on as well. Only Black remained completely oblivious, staring at his senior with a blank expression.

The two girls quickly brushed past their senior and peeked around the corner. They grinned and snickered as they saw Red and Blue talking in the distance, standing _very_ close to each other, while even holding hands. Platinum let out a sigh and grabbed her two juniors by their ponytails and pulled them back.

“Ow, ow, ow!” White complained as she was forcefully pulled away.

“No, not my hair again!” Y complained as well.

“Do not spy on our seniors, please,” Platinum said coldly.

“But this is an important moment!” White whined again.

Y twisted her body and put an arm around Platinum. She quickly overpowered the heiress and dragged her towards the corner as well. “Let’s all watch together!”

“What? No!” Platinum tried to say, but she found herself pinched in between her two juniors, who forced her to _spy_ on their seniors. “This is unacceptable,” she grumbled, but couldn’t do anything as both of her juniors were physically stronger than her.

Black sighed as the three girls in front of him pressed themselves against the wall and peeked around. He wondered if they had completely forgotten about him, and the fact that he was carrying all the shopping bags so his arms were going to fall off pretty soon. … Was this what White was talking about when she said that she’d need him? Ugh…

…

“Why are you so afraid, Blue?” Red asked, gently gripping her hands.

“It’s just…” she mumbled out, unable to make eye contact with him. “… You…”

“Me?” Red repeated in surprise. “Did I do something wrong? Am I making you uncomfortable?”

Blue suddenly flinched a bit. “N – No, it’s not that, but…”

Red thought about what Platinum had done to him a couple of minutes ago and decided to use that. He let go of Blue’s hands, making look up a little in surprise. “I really care about you, Blue. And I really like living with you. To be honest, I’m really happy that you’re living with me. And I enjoyed every moment we spent together. But… I want you to be happy more than anything else. I don’t want to force you to stay with me if you don’t want to…”

Blue let out a gasp and quickly looked up at him, tears still welling in her eyes. She hastily grabbed his hands and held tight, as if she was terrified of letting go. “N – No! It’s not that! Please don’t get the wrong idea…” ‘ _… I… hurt him… After all that… … This has to end now. … I have to tell him…_ ’ She gripped his hands tight and took a shuddering breath. She clenched her eyes shut as if she was afraid to look at him and lowered her head. “Red… What I wanted to tell you before… … What I always wanted to tell you, for years now… … And what I was always afraid to say… is that… I… … love… you…”

Red’s eyes widened momentarily in surprise. But he slowly smiled, as all of his concerns and worries melted away. … Platinum was right. He did have nothing to worry about at all. “Blue,” he tried to say, but she wasn’t listening, as she was busy blurting out everything that was pent up deep inside her, as if she was rambling an explanation. He smiled warmly, but she didn’t even see it, as she had her eyes clenched shut.

Blue trembled violently for a while, as she desperately fought the thoughts in her mind that was yelling at her that she had messed up everything. “… I love you so damn much… … But so many things have gone wrong for me… I can’t bear the thought of this failing too… I can’t bear the thought that I’d _darken_ your life… You’ve done so much for me, and yet… if I end up hurting you in any way, I… I just… can’t… … And what if you don’t like me like that? I can’t lose you. You’re my first friend… my first true friend… if I lose you because of what I said…”

Red freed his hands from her grip and immediately, she felt her voice get caught in her throat. … She had pushed her luck too far. She rushed things too much and she had ruined everything now. … That was it. It was all over now. The happiness, the peace… it was all a thing of the past now. If Red was pulling himself away at a time like this, then…

Blue’s eyes snapped open when she felt his arms wrapping around her body for a warm embrace. Her breath got caught in her throat and her mouth fell open in shock and all the panicked negative emotions crumbled away as Red pulled her in close. And just as her mind was starting to pick up the pieces, Red pulled back just a bit so that he could kiss her lips.

Blue’s eyes widened in sheer shock and she couldn’t even think about moving an inch. She remained very tensed as her mind refused to accept what was going on at face value, and kept coming up with pessimistic explanations.

“You have absolutely nothing to fear,” Red said softly after pulling away. “And you have absolutely nothing to worry about either. Because I love you too, Blue. And I always will.”

He pulled her in close once again for a tight embrace. Blue began to tremble again as a new surge of emotions filled her whole. All of her fears, worries, and anxieties _finally_ melted away in Red’s warm embrace. And with a sob, she wrapped her arms around him to return the hug and buried her face into his shoulder and began to cry in happiness.

…

August 14, Tapu Village, Alola, 1 am…

…

Moon stared blankly at the night sky. She had finally managed to “convince” the others to let her go, and she had come to Tapu Village on Ula’ula Island so that she could train on Mount Lanakila. … By “convince”, all she did was simply board a ship and tell the Aether pilot to take her to this island, or she’d inject him with an incurable poison. And now, here she was, in Tapu Village, with Mount Lanakila to the north. But the problem was that it was pretty late right now. She couldn’t see much, so training on top of the mountains wasn’t going to work too well. And so she had allowed Sun to convince her to at least sleep in the Pokémon Center, and train in the morning.

Moon let out a long sigh and looked up at the silhouette of the mountains. If she recalled, Platinum had come here not too long ago with White and Y, as she toured around the islands of Alola. Moon hadn’t been with her in this island, but she had heard that the newly hatched Eevee had wandered off in Mount Lanakila and had evolved into Glaceon. Moon wished she had been there. She wanted to be with her senior, and to see her happy.

… But perhaps she could use this situation to get closer to her? With Toxapex and Vikavolt no longer with her, she had plenty of room in her Pokémon team. … Maybe she could get a Glaceon of her own. And maybe another Ice type while training in the frozen depths of Mount Lanakila. The Aether uniform she was still stuck wearing was at least good for heat insulation, so she would be able to stay warm in there. … But… what if she was such a failure as a trainer that her new Ice type Pokémon would be lost too? That loss would-

Moon suddenly snapped to the right. … Something had just said her name just now. But not in a voice she recognized. … Not even in an audible voice. But she could still _feel_ that something had said her name. She took out her bow and Pokéball arrow and lowered herself to a crouch. But unfortunately, she couldn’t exert too much strength in her knees right now, so crouching was impossible. She could hunch over a bit and that was as low as she could get.

Moon held her breath and glanced around in the darkness. … There it was again. Something was calling for her. She narrowed her eyes and began to walk just as Sun came out of the Pokémon Center.

“Miss Customer! Where are you going?!” Sun asked, running towards her.

“Something… is calling for me…” she said quietly, her tone ice cold. “Something… out there…”

Sun glanced at where she was looking at and could see absolutely nothing but darkness. He gulped in terror and stood right behind her. “I – I’m going with you then.”

For a while, the two slowly walked forward, Sun simply following Moon while the girl followed where she was being called.

“… There… it’s coming from up ahead…” Moon said as she pointed forward.

Sun looked at where she was pointing and jumped in surprise. “The Thrifty Megamart?! No way! That place is haunted!”

“… It’s calling for me,” Moon said again as she walked up the natural stairs to reach the destroyed abandoned mart.

Sun gulped again. “W – Well… maybe since Franc is with me, it’ll be okay?”

Moon opened the door to the abandoned mart and Sun hastily ran after her. And immediately, a box fell over from the counter nearby and there was a faint snickering sound coming from ahead.

Moon aimed her Pokéball arrow and steadied her breathing. “… Where are you…”

“Miss Customer! Look out!” Sun cried out in terror.

Moon looked down and could see a long shadowy claw extending out of her own shadow. She hopped away and winced at the pain caused by the sudden exertion. She clenched her teeth against the pain. This was training too!

Another box fell off of the counter to the right as a Haunter woke up from its sleep and wandered off deeper into the mart. A Gengar glanced over at the two _invaders_ before wandering off towards a bookshelf in the far left of the store, to look at some of the remaining magazines.

Moon narrowed her eyes. The Ghost type Pokémon were revealing themselves to her as she became accustomed to this environment. But none of these were paying attention to her. But there was clearly one that was calling for her, and trying to reach out to her. … Which one?

She suddenly felt a little chill and let out a faint gasp. But this chill was coming from her mind, and not her body, as if something was feeding off of her thoughts. But where was it going…

Sun suddenly tapped her shoulder and pointed up. Moon didn’t look up yet. She held her breath and after a mental count of three, jumped backwards, aimed up, and shot her arrow…


	13. Truth and Deception

Chapter 10: Truth and Deception

August 12, Viridian City, Kanto, 2 pm…

Red gently patted Blue’s back as she cried into his shoulder. He realized that while he hadn’t heard her crying that many times in the past, he remembered her crying like this just once before. This wasn’t fake, like that one time when she had scammed the crap out of him. And this wasn’t from misery or pain. Instead, this was from relief and joy of acceptance, just like the time when Prof. Oak had given her a Pokédex all those years ago. As a result, Blue didn’t cry for too long. She calmed down pretty quickly and noticeably relaxed while hugging him.

Blue closed her eyes as her sobs died out, and let out a long contented sigh. The anxieties that had been building up inside her for years have suddenly disappeared. And so for once in her life, there was nothing nagging at her from the inside, and there were no thoughts desperately racing across her mind.

“Are you okay now, Blue?” Red asked softly.

Blue nodded. “Yeah… I’m okay now. … And… thanks to you, I’ll be perfectly okay from now on.” She pulled back from the embrace and looked up at him admiringly. “And I won’t have anything to worry about.”

She wiped away the last of her tears and smiled brightly. Red smiled back, noticing that this was the happiest smile he had ever seen on her face. … Although… the smile she had on when he had offered her to live with him looked pretty happy too. Well, as long as she was happy, it was good enough. And she looked _really_ happy right now.

“That’s good to hear,” he said. “And I’m really glad to see you this happy. I’ll do all I can to keep you that way.”

Blue blushed embarrassedly and slightly lowered her head. “Thank you so much, Red,” she said timidly. “Words can’t express what I’m feeling right now. I feel so… happy and giddy, also kind of silly for being so scared and worried before, and such relief that I don’t know if this is real or a dream…” She looked down and gently took his hands. “And as much as I want to just stay like this with you… I think I need some time to sort out my thoughts and feelings and organize myself a little.”

Red nodded as he massaged her hands. He had been successful in his talks with her and had gotten her to confess. He had accomplished all that he had been trying (and then some), so he felt that it was okay to withdraw for now. He didn’t want to push things too far too quickly. He needed time to sort things out as well, and ponder about their future. “Okay. Take your time, Blue.”

Blue gave his hands a gentle squeeze. “And later tonight, when we’re alone, we’ll have to talk. I’m sure we’ll have a lot to discuss.”

…

“Ah, it worked!” White squealed in delight, as she watched Blue giving Red a quick kiss on the cheek before heading inside the Pokémon Center.

Y giggled happily as well. “She looked so happy!”

“Yes, she did,” Platinum said with a smile, though she sounded a bit grumpy from having been boxed in by her juniors. She struggled to free herself from them but to no avail. “Now release me.”

“I guess the show’s over,” White said as she stepped away from the corner, giving Platinum enough space to pull away. “… Sorry, Lady Platinum.”

Platinum let out an annoyed huff and straightened out her shirt. “Now let us return to the Pokémon Center.”

“Yeah. Okay, come on, Black, let’s get going again,” White said as she signaled Black to get up.

Black grumbled a bit before rising from his crouch, still holding all the shopping bags. After a brief moment of thought, White took a light shopping bag off of his hands. Y took a heavier one and Platinum took a lighter one, so that while Black would still be carrying most of the weight in the shopping bags thus fulfilling his role as a pack mule, it would still appear that the three girls were carrying some of the load to help out.

…

Red leaned against the wall of the Pokémon Center, waiting for the other Dex Holders while taking the time to sort out his thoughts on what just happened. So Blue… really liked him? That was certainly unexpected, but very, very pleasant to know.

Ever since he learned about the kidnapping and her terrible childhood, he had tried his best to make her smile. He wanted her to be happy, but didn’t know how to do that. But now, after that confession, he felt that he knew exactly what he had to do. All he had to do was be himself and continue to provide her the warmth and love that she desired. … Easy! Since she was already living under the same roof as him, it would be easy to take good care of her. And together, they’d be so happy and-

He snapped out of his thoughts when Platinum, Black, White, and Y were close enough to the Pokémon Center. Black looked bored and tired, White and Y had goofy grins, and Platinum gave him a knowing smile.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting,” White said brightly.

“Oh, hey,” Red said with a wave. “Go on inside. Everyone’s here now except for Yellow. Once she returns, we’ll get going again.”

“All right, then let’s try to rest our feet for a little while,” Black said as he hurried inside.

White and Y followed him inside, and Platinum stalled a little so that she would enter last. She paused a bit in front of Red and looked up at him.

“Everything worked out great with Blue,” Red said with a smile. “Thanks a lot for your help.”

Platinum smiled happily. “I am very pleased to hear it, senior. I was glad to assist.”

Red gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder, and she returned it with a polite bow. He let her enter the Pokémon Center, and looked around to see if he could find Yellow anywhere.

A few minutes later, he spotted her coming from the direction of the Gym. She was slowly walking towards him in the distance, so he walked over to meet her halfway. Oddly, she looked rather… devastated. She kept her head down and appeared to be completely devoid of energy.

“Hey Yellow, is something wrong?” he asked once she was close enough.

Yellow simply looked up at him for a bit before she averted her gaze and forced out a faint smile. “… No… nothing’s wrong.”

Red frowned, as something was _clearly_ wrong. “So… were you able to get permission?”

Yellow shook her head sadly. “No… I couldn’t,” she lied, looking down at the ground.

She actually had been given permission to go on a break and so she was able to travel with Red and the others. But… after what she saw… traveling with Red _and Blue_ was the last thing she wanted to do.

She could understand if Blue had feelings for him. And it sure seemed like she did, in fact. But Red had kissed her first. Which meant that he had feelings for her as well. And that was pretty painful for Yellow. But what was absolutely tearing her apart in the inside currently was the fact that both Red and Blue looked _perfectly happy_ together. Red and Blue together were perfectly happy, and there was no room for anyone else to squeeze in between.

The only way for Yellow to even make an attempt now was to try to break up Red and Blue. And she wasn’t going to do that. She wasn’t even able to succeed anyways, but even if by some miracle that Red and Blue break up… they would not be able to find happiness anymore. And if Red was to lose that happiness that he has now… that would also hurt Yellow quite a lot too. At least right now, he was happy, and she would just have to find some peace out of it.

There was nothing she could do now. And she didn’t want to do anything either. This unexpected heartbreak made her want to just crawl into her bed and sleep for a month or something.

“Oh. That sucks,” Red said, wondering if that was why she looked so down. “It would’ve been really fun if you were able to come with us.”

‘ _No, it wouldn’t… not for me…_ ’ Yellow thought bitterly. “Sorry, Red. But it looks like… you’re going to have to have fun without me…” ‘ _As usual… and from now on too…_ ’

“Sorry. I guess we’ll just have to try to have fun at a later date when it works for you,” Red said. He gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder. “Hey, cheer up. There’ll be another time.”

“Yeah…” Yellow forced out a smile. “… Well, good luck and have fun with the trip, Red. … And be careful.” ‘ _And be happy… for me… I’ll just have to be satisfied with knowing that you’ll be happy…_ ’

She then gave him a wave and turned away, slowly heading home. Red watched her leave before entering the Pokémon Center, wondering if there was something he could’ve said to cheer her up.

Inside, he saw Diamond, Pearl, and Black eating some snacks while Platinum, White, and Y chatted amongst themselves. And just as he was wondering where Blue had gone, he saw her coming out of the washroom.

“Okay, so Yellow won’t be joining us for this, so we’ll have to proceed with our original plan,” Red said once Blue returned.

“So we’ll divide into two groups, one goes to Johto, the other tours around Kanto, right?” White asked.

Red briefly thought about how the Dex Holders should split. The safest would be to have a senior Dex Holder in both groups, but that would mean that he would be separated from Blue. He didn’t like that, she would hate it too, and they wouldn’t be able to have their conversation that night.

He would have to stay with Blue. That left two spaces left for his group. He didn’t like the idea of splitting the Sinnoh Dex Holders, so that meant all three would be on the other group, fill up the last space with Y, and so the two Unova Dex Holders would have to join him and Blue.

Since Platinum and Y have already been attacked and were in the same group, Red hoped that that group wouldn’t be targeted by the hidden enemies, and be safe in their travels.

“Okay then. Blue, Black, and White will be in my group, and so Platinum, Dia, Pearl, and Y will be in the other group. Now, does anyone have any preference in where you’d want to go?”

“I want to visit a few places in Goldenrod City, and check out the Pokéthlon Dome, so… could we go to Johto?” White asked, raising a hand.

“Then we shall stay here in Kanto,” Platinum said after glancing at the others.

“That settles it then,” Red said with a nod. “We’ll divide the supplies we bought, and then we’ll be off.”

…

An hour later…

…

Platinum waved at the other group flying off towards New Bark Town of Johto. Once they were sufficiently far away, she lowered her arm and turned to face the others.

“Well then, shall we get going too?”

“Um… I’ve been thinking,” Y began. “Now that Black’s gone… can you guys help me train?”

“Why did you bring up Black?” Pearl asked.

“That guy doesn’t like the idea of me getting any stronger,” Y said. “I’m betting that he’s going to be asking Red to train him quite a lot while in Johto, just so that he can try to beat me in a battle. So I want to train while he’s not here.”

Platinum thought for a second. “Very well. Diamond and Pearl will help you train. I shall do my best too. After all, it would be prudent to strengthen up in the event that we do face our enemy in the near future.”

“Just like old times,” Diamond said as he rummaged through his bag. “I have no idea what the bad guys looked like, so I’ll have to improvise on the mask…” He took out a blank smiley face type mask, and with a pen, drew a generic frowning angry smiley face. He put the mask on and faced Y. “Okay. Pretend like I’m that guy who kidnapped you when we train!”

Y tilted her head. “Um… not sure how helpful this _image training_ is going to be, when the mask looks nothing like the guy, and the Pokémon you’re using are clearly yours and not that guy’s, but… okay?”

Platinum checked her Pokétch for the time. “There is enough time for us to head out of the city to avoid causing a commotion and have our training session before supper.” She looked over at Pearl and smiled. “And this should give you enough time to design a suitable training regimen for us, no?”

Pearl returned her smile. “Yeah. Once I see how everyone’s doing and what the potential issues are, I’m sure I can conjure something up.”

“Excellent.” Platinum looked at Y again. “And this will be the perfect opportunity to see how strong you have become during your Kalos Gym challenge. So do try your best.”

Y grinned and clenched her right hand into a fist. “Oh, I definitely will!”

…

Several hours later, outskirts of Cherrygrove City, Johto, 10 pm…

…

Red crawled into the tent and zipped up the door. Blue was sitting on her opened sleeping bag, with her knees pulled up to her chest, staring quietly at the tent floor. For the night, the four Dex Holders had to split into two tents. But since he needed to talk to Blue privately _and_ he disliked the idea of having to put up with Black’s snoring again, Red suggested that the seniors take one tent and the juniors take the other. No one opposed the idea, so here he was, in the same tent with Blue.

“So, we’re finally alone,” he began, moving to sit in front of her in his sleeping bag. “Are you ready to talk?”

Blue let out a long sigh, as if her perpetual depression had returned. “No… I don’t think I’ll ever be ready…” She looked up at him and gave him a bitter smile. “I mean… look how long it took for me to confess to you. And even then, my hand was forced. If you didn’t press the issue, I never would’ve said it.”

“Well then, I’ll just have to keep asking the questions,” Red said as he inched over towards her.

“Okay. … But hey, could you… um… sit next to me, instead of in front of me?”

Red thought a bit before giving her a smile and complying with her wishes. “Hey, just like that time years ago, huh?”

Blue smiled sheepishly and lowered her head, still looking straight ahead so that she wasn’t facing him. “Yeah… just like that time…”

“So, Blue. You said today that you were… scared and worried. Can you tell me why?”

Blue looked up at the corner of the tent ceiling. Looking away from him was actually making it easy for her to be honest with her thoughts. “You mean so much to me, Red. You know that, right? You’re my first friend. You’re the first outsider who actually treated me nicely. You’re the first outsider who didn’t hate me, and actually cared for me. You’re the first one to call me a friend. And it’s honestly thanks to you that I’m able to experience happiness at all. You mean _so much_ to me. But… what happens if you didn’t like me as I liked you? I just… can’t bear that thought. You were the only glimmer of light in my dark life. You even invited me to live with you when I had nowhere else to go. If I confessed to you and you didn’t feel the same way… I’d lose everything. I was… terrified.”

“But you’d know how much I cared about you while you were living with me,” Red said.

“Yeah, I know. But at the same time… you know how… _bad_ my life has been. And I admit I have a lot of… negativity. I expect the worst outcome, and it happens quite a bit too. So… what if my dark life affected you? You were the only glimmer of light in my dark life, but… would I end up being the only dark shadow in your bright life? I can’t allow that to happen… You saved my life, you know. You saved me from a pointless death in depression. I owe you so much… I can’t repay that by harming you…”

“So you were terrified that I might reject you, and you were worried that you might negatively affect me?”

“… Yeah… Red, I just… want you to know. If you think that this… thing between us isn’t going to work out, I… wouldn’t blame you, and I wouldn’t-”

Red put a hand on her opposite shoulder, effectively putting his arm around her, making her jump a bit. “Ah, no more negativity, Blue. Don’t even think about it.” He gave her a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. “You love me, and I love you, and that’s all that matters. Sure, we’ll come across some troubles every now and then. Everyone does. But we’ll face them together. After all, above all else, we’re friends, right? We’ll face troubles together and support and help one another.”

Blue trembled a bit but smiled. “… That’s what Platinum said too. … And you’re both right. … Oh, Red. You’re… so kind and warm… You deserve the best, you know. And… I’m… just not the best.”

Red squeezed her shoulder again. “Oh come now. As if there’s anyone better than you that I care about. You’re the only one for me, Blue. And don’t you ever forget it. No more doubting, no more self-negativity. Just relax, be happy, and enjoy yourself!”

Blue let out a shuddering sigh and suddenly turned to look at him. “… You’re right, Red. You’re right. There’s no point in me having doubts now. And I shouldn’t be afraid anymore. I was afraid of confessing my feelings to you, and… look at that. I haven’t been able to do anything for well over a decade. But… no more. I’m going to believe that my life will change for the better with you, just like how it changed for the better when you accepted me as a friend all those years ago. You are the turning point in my life, Red. Running into you has been the best thing to happen to me in all my life. And maybe today will be tied for that spot now.”

“That’s the spirit. Have more confidence in enjoying your life!”

Blue’s expression darkened a tad bit. “But… That’s a lot easier said than done. I will falter probably quite a lot. … And what if I end up disappointing you?”

Red held up a hand. “Ah, there’s that negativity and doubt again. Drop all your worries. Yes, you may falter. But I’ll always be with you to support you. I’ll always encourage you and cheer you on. And I’ll always be here to catch you if you fall. I’ll never be disappointed in you. And I’ll _never_ give up on you either. So don’t you worry about a thing.”

Blue trembled quite a bit and closed her eyes as a couple of tears rolled down her cheeks. “… Thank you, Red. … I think that’s exactly what I needed to hear from you all this time…” She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face into his shoulder. “… Yeah… As long as you’re here with me… I have nothing to fear and nothing to worry about…”

…

August 14, Thrifty Megamart, Alola, 1:30 am…

…

Moon jumped backwards and shot her arrow straight up. The Pokéball-tipped arrow flew towards the odd, glowing purple orb of sorts near the ceiling of the abandoned Megamart. Since it was so dark, it was impossible to see what exactly Moon was aiming for. But the arrow hit something and there was a brief flash of light as the Pokéball opened up.

Sun quickly caught Moon in his arms so that she wouldn’t crash into the ground. She still gasped as the contact sent jolts of pain through her patched up wounds. She clenched her teeth and tried to push off of Sun, but her body refused to move. She ended up leaning against him as she watched the Pokéball now on the ground, shaking a few times before coming to a stop.

“You okay, Miss Customer?” Sun asked.

“I’m fine,” Moon lied as she stared at the Pokéball. “… What did I catch?”

Sun helped her towards the inert Pokéball, and picked it up for her. Moon recovered enough to take the Pokéball and opened it, sending out whatever was just caught. And the Pokémon that appeared out of it was… a Shuppet?

The horn on the Shuppet’s head was glowing faint purple as the Shuppet floated in front of her, seemingly whispering something. Moon stared into its eyes, beginning to feel oddly… comfortable.

Sun glanced around and jumped in surprise as he now saw a _line_ of Shuppets circling around them, each of them whispering something.

“Uh… Miss Customer?”

Moon ignored him and focused on the Shuppet in front of her. “… This is the one that’s been calling me… But why?” She narrowed her eyes as she thought about what she had read about Shuppet when she had been researching something in the past. “… Shuppets like vengeful emotions and are attracted by them… is that why this one came to me?”

The Shuppet let out a whistling noise, and Moon felt a bit more comfortable, as if her seething hatred was no longer tormenting her deep inside. She began to smile as she really liked this new sensation.

“Uh… Miss Customer?” Sun tried again. “… Can we… go now?”

Moon turned to look at him, and he could’ve sworn that her eyes had a faint blue glow to them… “Yeah. I guess we should go back.” She returned the Shuppet into its Pokéball and looked at the swarm of Shuppets gathered around her.

The swarm of Shuppets’ whispers grew louder, as if they were chanting something. Perish Song? … No, Shuppets were not capable of that.

“I think we _really_ need to get out of here,” Sun said, his voice quaking.

But there were so many Shuppets circling the two Dex Holders, all chanting louder and louder. Moon’s thoughts darkened as she wished her Rotom and Pokédex were still with her, so that she could figure out what this horde wanted. The Shuppets seemed to delight with her darkening thoughts, as they grew more excited, chanting louder as if asking for more.

The lone Gengar that had been looking at the magazine rack floated over and whacked the nearest Shuppet with a rolled up magazine, as if telling it to shut the hell up. The Gengar waved its magazine roll some more and the Shuppet horde began to dissipate after some protest.

“Well, that happened,” Moon muttered as the Shuppets left her alone now. “Thank you,” she said to the Gengar.

The Gengar waved her off and went over to sit by the toppled over bookshelf to continue reading its “Fishing Mastery” magazine.

Sun and Moon exited the Thrifty Megamart and headed back towards the Pokémon Center. Sun stayed quite close to Moon and glanced around to ensure that no other Ghost types were following. Not that he would be able to see them in this pitch black darkness…

Moon held the Pokéball of her newly captured Shuppet, not entirely sure how to feel about the capture. Yes, she had a lot of vacant spots in her team now, but… this capture wasn’t exactly by her choice. Then again, the Shuppet’s presence was helping quell her desire for vengeance, so… maybe this addition was going to be _very_ helpful?

…

Mount Lanakila, 3 pm…

…

Moon watched as her Decidueye delivered the finishing blow on the wild Glalie. She could tell that her Pokémon was not a fan of the cold temperatures inside the icy cavern, but was fighting through it anyways. Perhaps it was looking to overcome some of its natural weaknesses, as it had been forced to stay in the safety of its Pokéball during the fire in Prof. Kukui’s lab, and thus had been forced to watch the tragedy helplessly.

Decidueye’s movements were becoming sluggish though, as the cold temperature took its toll. Moon grimaced, wishing that she had spent more time training with Platinum and her new Ice type Pokémon. Maybe then, her Decidueye might be a _bit_ better accustomed to fighting the cold… And more importantly, it would’ve allowed her to learn how to quickly train newly captured Pokémon.

“So… uh… we found that… ice rock thing…” Sun stuttered from behind, shivering violently in the cold. “So… how about… we go out and… take a break?”

Moon looked behind her at the ice rock where Platinum’s Eevee had evolved into Glaceon a month ago. For this training session, she had given herself the objective of finding the ice rock hidden in the depths of the icy cave, and then find her way back outside, while defeating everything that stood in her path. So now that she had found the ice rock, maybe it was time to head back outside instead of wandering around and pounding whatever wild Pokémon decided to try its luck next. Her body had been aching quite badly for a while now, and Sun looked like he was going to turn into an icicle pretty soon, so maybe it was time to take a breather.

“Okay. Let’s get out of here, then,” Moon said with a nod. She returned her Decidueye so that it could get a break, and sent out her new Shuppet so that she could try training it next.

She retraced her steps to go back the way she had come in, while still fighting whatever popped out.

While Moon had been training for quite a few hours today, she wasn’t quite sure how useful his was. The incident that cost her two Pokémon and her Pokédex was due to an ambush, where she was caught off guard. It was an unexpected occurrence. So she had been thinking about training herself by facing all sorts of unknowns and unexpected incidents, in order to get better reaction times to surprises. But the problem was, she was facing a bunch of _known_ Pokémon. She knew what to expect from this cave. Or anywhere in Alola, really. She could see a Pokémon and know what she had to expect. This wasn’t helping in training her reaction.

Moon stopped in her steps when something small popped out of the snow on the ground. The small cone-shaped Pokémon took a look at her and jumped backwards, getting ready to fight.

The Pokémon itself, a Snorunt, was new, as she hadn’t fought one yet, but Moon wasn’t surprised by its appearance. She knew by the sheer number of Glalies that she fought that wild Snorunts were living here. But of course, that meant that this Snorunt wasn’t going to be capable of anything new that its evolution form wasn’t able. And Moon already knew pretty much all about Snorunt. Ice type, not particularly strong, evolves into Glalie or…

Moon paused mid-thought. … Snorunt could evolve into a Froslass, if it was female. And Platinum used to have a Froslass before she had returned it to Candice, the Snowpoint City Gym Leader. And honestly, another reason why Moon chose to train in the cave was so that she could find an Alola form Vulpix, just like Platinum had. But for some reason, she couldn’t find any. Now this Snorunt was offering her an opportunity to mimic the heiress once more.

“Something wrong, Miss Customer?” Sun asked, noticing that she was just standing there, not doing anything.

“Courier, take out your Pokédex,” Moon said quietly. And when he complied, she took it from him to check the information on the Snorunt right in front of her. And… it was female. Perfect. “Night Shade,” she ordered her Shuppet as she returned the Pokédex.

The Shuppet hit the Snorunt with Night Shade, dealing some damage but not enough to defeat it. The Snorunt retaliated with Powder Snow, but the Shuppet dodged the attack by phasing through the icy cavern wall. Upon returning from the wall, the Shuppet extended its shadow to go past the Snorunt, striking it behind with Shadow Sneak.

The Snorunt stumbled forward, just as Moon’s Pokéball tipped arrow struck it in the forehead. The Pokéball fell into the snowy ground and attempted to shake before going idle.

“Huh. Why’d you catch that one?” Sun asked.

“No reason,” Moon lied, as she picked up the Pokéball. “Now come on, let’s get going again.”

Sun wanted to ask why she borrowed his Pokédex, but Moon was already marching ahead. Well, whatever reason she had for catching the Snorunt, it was clear that she wasn’t going to say it. With a sigh, he jogged forward to catch up with her.

Eventually, the two Dex Holders exited the frozen cave and stepped outside. Sun let out a long sigh of relief and tried to shake away the numbing feeling of coldness biting away at his skin.

“So Miss Customer, did you get what you wanted from that training session?”

“Yes, and no,” Moon answered. “I don’t know how much I’m gaining from this when I already know all about the Pokémon I’m facing. I need to go somewhere new and fight Pokémon or opponents that I’m not familiar with.”

Sun thought for a second. “We could go to Hoenn. That’s the closest region and it’s not like you’ve traveled around there before.”

“No,” Moon answered quickly. “I don’t want to go somewhere I could be recognized.”

“Who could possibly recognize you in Hoenn?” Sun asked. “… Oh, you mean Ruby and Sapphire? Come on. What are the odds that you’ll run into the _two_ people in the whole region who could recognize you?”

“Emerald is probably there too.”

“Fine. _Two and a half_ , then. Still, it’s almost a guarantee that you’re not going to run into anyone that knows you.”

Moon still shook her head. “Still though, no. I’m not going to risk it. I can _not_ let the Lady know what happened to me. Understand? Not while I’m down weakened like this. I will _not_ go somewhere where I have more than 0% chance of running into a familiar face.”

“So then… not Kanto, or Johto, or Hoenn, or Sinnoh, or Unova, or Kalos. Where does that leave?”

Moon thought briefly about the other regions where she could go. Kanto was a no-go. The Lady was there right now. Johto wasn’t an option either, given the proximity to Kanto, and the fact that there was a group of Dex Holders touring that region currently. Hoenn had Ruby and Sapphire and maybe Emerald, but given how frequently Ruby and Sapphire went to the various cities and towns, it was too dangerous. Going to Sinnoh was just plain stupid given how many people there knew her. She had been to Unova and Kalos a bit too many times alongside Platinum, so even though there weren’t any Dex Holders there currently, she didn’t really want to go there again. So then that left…

“I’m going to the region of Galar,” Moon announced. “You don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to. It’ll probably be pricey to go all the way over there.”

Sun looked a bit troubled at the mention of cost, but shook his head. “And what, let you go there alone like this? Platinum would-” Moon cast him a _deadly_ glare, forcing him to quickly fix his mistake. “I mean… _the Lady_ would lock me in a fridge if I did that. No, I’ll go with you.” He put his hands into his pockets and briefly wondered how much this was going to cost him. “… But… how long do you intend to hide this from her? You’re going to have to tell her the truth one day. It’s not like you’re going to avoid meeting up with her forever.”

Moon winced a little. “… I know. Once I’ve gotten stronger and am no longer a disappointment, I’ll let her know what happened. Until I’m no longer in this pathetic state, I’ll… just have to lie to her. She wants me to go to Kanto to meet her, and I had to lie that my task here had been extended, and that I’d be able to go meet her once I was finished. As long as she doesn’t check for Alola news, I should be okay. She hates it when people lie to her, but… I can’t let her know of my failures.” She closed her eyes and let out a sigh. ‘ _I can only hope that you’ll forgive me for this… sister…_ ’ She shook her head a little and opened her eyes again. “Well, come on. Let’s find a ship that’s headed for Galar. … And stop by a clothes shop first. I’m not going to go to Galar while looking like an Aether employee.”


	14. The Descent

Chapter 11: The Descent

August 15, Tapu Village, Alola, 10 am…

Moon sat on a large rock at the southern edge of Tapu Village, staring off into the ocean in the distance. Her new Shuppet floated around her, greedily feeding off of its trainer’s vengeful thoughts and anger. She also kept her new Snorunt out as well, in order to bond with it faster. The Snorunt was nestled on her lap, hiding under her shadow from the Alola sun. It wasn’t appreciating the high temperature in the midsummer Alola weather, but it was enjoying the gentle pets from its trainer, absent-minded though they may be.

Moon let out a long sigh. Now that her Shuppet was eating away her vengeful thoughts, she was starting to feel rather empty and lost. The loss of her friends and her Pokémon was beginning to build up inside her now that it was not buried under thoughts of vengeance. She wanted to go home, and be with people who could actually comfort her. And she wanted to be with someone who could actually give her useful advice in situations like this. Her Sinnoh seniors were always so helpful whenever she was feeling down, but she was terrified of talking to Platinum. The heiress would undoubtedly be upset that she had been _lying_ to her repeatedly about what was going on. Moon would have to beg for forgiveness when she met up with her later, but… would she even forgive her? And the longer this took, the more the heiress would get upset, but… Moon simply wasn’t ready yet.

She glanced at her Shuppet, wondering if it could eat away her depression as well, but… apparently, it only devoured vengeful emotions and other angry thoughts. Damn. She sighed again and slowly scanned the shoreline, trying to find something that would distract her from her thoughts and her fears.

Since Route 14 in the south was largely obliterated, there were no people around. In other beaches of Alola, there were always groups of people either enjoying the water or fishing by a dock further out into the water. But in here, the only things that caught Moon’s eyes were wild Pokémon that appeared every now and then, whether that was a Pelipper roosting for a bit or a Magikarp hopping out of the water surface for whatever reason.

Moon looked at her Shuppet and gave it a gentle pet. The Shuppet let out a soft whistle and resumed hovering around her. Moon stared off into the distance once more, and saw something new this time. There was a Gengar sitting by the shore next to a bucket, tugging at a fishing rod.

Curious. That Gengar appeared to have been fishing there for a long time now. But Moon hadn’t seen it at all until just now. Did her Shuppet do something to her that suddenly allowed her to see more Ghost type Pokémon? Interesting…

“Miss Customer!” came Sun’s voice from behind.

Moon slowly turned towards the voice, and her Snorunt grumbled as her shadow no longer covered it from the sunlight.

“What is it?” she asked when he was close enough.

Sun noticed that her eyes briefly had that faint blue tinge again, though that just might be the sunlight… “Uh… our ride’s finally here. Looks like whatever got all the Charizards occupied had finally ended.”

Moon nodded and returned all of her Pokémon. “Okay… so we can finally go to Malie City.” She rose to her feet and winced a little. … The pain from her injuries wasn’t getting any better. Sure, it had only been two days since the disaster, but she had applied so much medicine on herself that she should’ve recovered at least a bit by now. The courier had been through such beatings before, and he was always up and running by the next day after she treated him. Maybe he was just physically dense? Maybe she needed more time. Or maybe…

“Are you coming?” Sun asked.

Moon snapped out of her thoughts and nodded. “Yeah…”

Sun hopped onto the Ride Charizard first and extended a hand towards her. Moon took his hand and accepted his help in climbing onto the Charizard. Once she was securely seated behind him, Sun gave the order for the Ride Charizard to fly towards Malie City.

…

Malie City, 11 am…

…

Moon wandered through the aisles of clothes in the apparel shop, wondering which ones suited her. As usual, she preferred something darker in color. She soon spotted a black t-shirt that was to her liking. The shirt was tight enough that if she wore it, the bandages underneath might be noticeable, but because it was dark enough, the outlines of those bandages would not be visible unless observed really closely.

She found the matching pair of dark shorts and picked the correct size. She realized that the black t-shirt and shorts were awfully similar to those that Platinum was wearing nowadays, and wondered if she was mimicking her a _bit_ too much. … Well, the heiress was actually wearing a black _sleeveless_ shirt, and not a t-shirt, so… maybe their attires would look different enough.

Moon halted in her steps when she found a set of long black stockings. … Maybe her attire would be a bit _too_ different from Platinum’s? But these black stockings would remedy that, perhaps, as the heiress always wore them. Moon picked up the stockings and a set of elegant white shoes, and headed towards the changing room.

Changing in and out of her clothes was a bit of a pain given how slowly and carefully she had to do it, so she hoped that the clothes she picked looked as good on her as she thought they did. Otherwise… damn. _Eventually_ , she finished changing into the new clothes and stepped out of the changing room to see how she looked.

Moon twirled in front of the full-length mirror. Hmm… so far so good, but it felt like she was missing something. She looked around the apparel shop and soon found an elegant looking wide brimmed white hat, kind of like the one that Blue had. She picked up the hat and for its accessory, she picked a black flower-shaped pin. She put the hat on and went towards the mirror again. With the black shirt, black shorts, and the black stockings that didn’t quite reach the shorts, her clothes were mostly black, just like Platinum’s. But the lack of a scarf, white shoes instead of pink boots, and a different type of hat made her look sufficiently similar yet different from Platinum that it felt okay.

‘ _Eh, good enough,_ ’ Moon thought as she proceeded to remove the sale tags on each of her new clothes items. She then went to retrieve her old clothes, and picked up a new black-strapped white bag on the way towards the counter, to replace her burnt one.

She gave all the sale tags to the cashier and raised an eyebrow as the cost was displayed on the screen. The purchase wasn’t as expensive as she had initially thought, although… that might be the result of her following Platinum around, who only ever went to the most expensive places. And this apparel shop in Malie City certainly wasn’t as expensive as the reservation-only boutique in Hearthome City.

Moon paid for everything and headed outside. Currently, Sun would be at the harbor, trying to get a couple of tickets for the ride to the region of Galar. So until he returned, she would have to wait. She moved all of her belongings from her old bag to the new one, and spent some time rearranging stuff until she was satisfied that the contents in her new bag were organized the way she liked it. And after making sure that the old bag was completely empty, she went over towards the garbage bin and dumped the old bag and the Aether Foundation uniform.

As she headed towards a bench near the apparel shop, she heard her Pokégear chiming as it received a call. Moon opened her bag to retrieve her Pokégear and froze with a gasp as she saw that it was Platinum calling her. She momentarily hesitated, as she wasn’t ready to talk to her yet. But… it’s not like she could ignore the call either.

“Hello?” she said, answering the call.

“Hello, Moon,” came Platinum’s calm voice.

“Oh, hello, Lady, it’s so good to hear from you,” Moon said as she put a hand over her heart.

“Likewise. I am calling you to get an update,” Platinum said, with no indication of emotion in her voice. “Are you able to return from Alola yet?”

“Oh, I’m so sorry Lady, but there have been some complications, and it looks like I’ll have to work here for a while longer,” Moon said, clutching at her chest as her nervousness and anxiety built up.

“Again?” Platinum said, sounding a bit surprised. “How much longer must I wait to see you?”

Moon winced and took a deep breath. “Um… Maybe… a week?” she lied, hoping to delay the moment of truth for at least another week. ‘ _More like **several** weeks…_’

“… I see,” Platinum said with a sigh. “I had hoped to train with you alongside Y. We have all been training together, and it has been very fun and meaningful. I had hoped that you would be a part of this as well.”

“I would really love to, but… I can’t just abandon the work here.”

“Yes. I suppose…” There was a long pause before she spoke again. “… Moon, is there something you wish to tell me?”

Moon gulped. Did her senior know what had happened already? Or did she detect the slight fluctuations in her voice? Either way, Moon wasn’t ready to tell the truth. She had no choice but to continue with the lie, and then beg for forgiveness later.

“No,” she answered. ‘ _Please don’t hate me for this… sister…_ ’ “Why do you ask?”

Platinum didn’t respond to her query. There was another long pause, and Moon began to fear that she had just lost her last chance, that her senior was already fully aware of everything that had happened, and had been testing her honesty. But it was too late now.

“Remember that you can always tell me if anything is bothering you,” Platinum said eventually.

“Of course, Lady. But nothing’s wrong. Honest.” ‘ _… Sister… I… can’t…_ ’

“Very well. I trust you,” Platinum said after another pause. “Stay safe, Moon. And keep in contact.”

“I will. And please be safe too. And have fun in your trip.” ‘ _… What have I done… How did this…_ ’

“I hope to see you soon.”

Platinum hung up and Moon clenched her eyes shut. She ended the call as well and double checked before she buried her face into her hands. “Oh… I’m so sorry, sister… I _betrayed_ your trust…” she whispered in a sob, as her emotions began to surge. “I do have something I need to tell you… I’m such a failure… I need your help so much… I’m so sorry for lying to you, but…”

“Miss Customer!” came Sun’s voice from afar.

Moon clenched her teeth and hastily wiped away her tears. She took a moment to revert her expression to normal before turning to face him.

“Courier, did you get the tickets?” she asked.

Sun stopped in front of her and looked at her new clothes. “So this is what you picked, huh? I think it’s a bit too cute given your personality, but hey, at least it’s dark enough!” He reached into his pockets and took out a couple of tickets. “And yeah, I got the tickets. The ship will leave at 3 pm today, and we’ll reach Hulbury in the Galar region in about 3 days.”

Moon let his comments about her clothes slide. She wasn’t in the mood. She took one of the tickets and nodded. “Okay… We still have a lot of time, so… let’s go get something to eat. And afterwards, I… want to be alone in the Malie Gardens for a while. I need to… um… mentally prepare myself.”

“Okay. I know a good cheap restaurant around here, so let’s go eat!”

…

Meanwhile, Route 6, Kanto…

…

Platinum stared at her Pokégear and frowned. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt that something had happened to Moon, and that she was hiding something from her.

“Are you okay, Lady?” Diamond asked, sitting next to her on the bench.

“I… am worried,” Platinum answered as she put her Pokégear away. “I fear that something had happened to Moon, but she is not being honest with me.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I do not know. It is just a feeling…”

Diamond pondered for a moment. “I understand your concerns, but I don’t think anything could’ve happened to her. She’s not going to lie to you over something minor. It’d have to be _pretty big_ for her to try to hide it, and I just don’t think that would’ve happened to her. She’s a smart kid, and a medicinal expert at that. There’s no way anything could’ve happened, right?”

“… Perhaps…” Platinum mumbled with a sigh.

Diamond gave her a bright smile to try to cheer her up. “Let’s trust her.” ‘ _Looks like I’ll have to give her a call though, just to be sure…_ ’

Platinum stared at his expression for a while before she lightened up. “Yes. I suppose you are correct. I trust that she will return to us when she is able.”

“All right, let’s stop!” came Pearl’s voice from afar.

Diamond and Platinum looked over to see that Pearl’s training session with Y had ended. Y’s Gabite looked exhausted, but the girl herself still looked to be quite fired up.

“Almost there!” she exclaimed excitedly. “Toto’s _soo_ close to evolving! … I think!”

“You should probably let it rest for a while though,” Pearl suggested. “You don’t want to push your Pokémon too hard.”

“I know. Maybe in our next session. But for now…” Y looked over at Diamond and waved. “It’s your turn now!” She then sent out her Zweilous. “Saza, you’re up!”

Diamond put away the pack of rice cakes he had been eating, and walked over towards her. “You’re really training hard to get your Pokémon to evolve. Don’t you want to get lunch first in Vermilion City before continuing?”

“Nope! Besides, I want at least one of my new Pokémon to evolve before X gets here! His ship would be arriving in a few hours, and I really want to show off a newly evolved Pokémon!”

“Ohh… and I was getting hungry too,” Diamond grumbled a bit as he took his place in the training battlefield. “But all right. But once one of your Pokémon evolves, let’s go eat something good!”

“Deal.” Y waited until Diamond had sent out his Pokémon (his newly captured Steelix) before giving the order. “All right, Saza, let’s go! Crunch!”

Pearl walked over to sit next to Platinum on the bench and observe the training from afar. “She’s really excited to evolve her Pokémon, huh?”

“Yes she is,” Platinum said with a nod, smiling warmly. “It is wonderful to see that she had returned to her bright and positive self.”

Pearl crossed his arms. “Yeah. She wasn’t going to stay depressed forever for her Absol abandoning her, but I’m glad that she’s back to normal now.” He watched her Zweilous shuffling towards the Steelix, with its fangs bared. “What do you think about that? Using Crunch against Steelix?”

“Hydreigon is far more proficient at ranged attacks, but Zweilous is not. Not to mention, allowing a _blind_ Pokémon to use ranged attacks would not accomplish anything positive,” Platinum said. “But Y would also know that a Steelix is much more vulnerable to ranged attacks than direct contact. So perhaps she would shift to using moves such as Dragon Pulse or Dark Pulse once the Zweilous is right in front of its opponent.”

“Quite probable,” Pearl agreed. “Even with Hustle, I don’t think biting a solid chunk of steel like Steelix is going to do anything. So as long as Y doesn’t stick to using physical contact moves, she should be fine.” He glanced over at Platinum, and noticed a small frown on her face. “… Something wrong, Miss Lady?”

Platinum gave a quiet sigh. “I am concerned about Y,” she said after a pause. “I am not sure if she is ready for the evolutions. I also do not think her Pokémon are ready to evolve either.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you remember the problem I had with Mega Lopunny?” Platinum asked. “Or the problem you had with your Mega Lucario?”

Pearl immediately caught on. “… Yeah. I caught Riolu not too long ago, and I got it to evolve pretty quickly. And then I made the mistake of letting it Mega Evolve immediately. It wasn’t anywhere near ready for the sudden power boost. It took a lot of effort to make sure it didn’t go rampant. I have to make sure it’s strong enough and in full control of itself before I let it Mega Evolve again.”

Platinum slowly nodded. “Yes. While I had Lopunny for many years and so it was prepared, the Mega Evolution’s power surge caused it to become very aggressive, even towards me. It is still rather aggressive, though it has gotten used to the power surge. Most Pokémon do not gain such power boosts upon evolving, or upon Mega Evolving. If a Pokémon was to evolve and then immediately Mega Evolve, it will lose control of itself due to the sudden huge power difference.”

“And Dragon type Pokémon all have that issue even without Mega Evolution,” Pearl continued for her. “Would her Zweilous stay in control of itself upon becoming a Hydreigon? Also, Deino and Zweilous are blind, but Hydreigon isn’t. How would it react to its sudden power boost _and_ sight at the same time?”

“Y still has her Mega Ring,” Platinum said quietly. “She has also searched and obtained the Mega Stones for her future Salamence and Garchomp. Her Dragon Pokémon are still new. They have not sufficiently bonded with her yet.”

“In short, it’s a disaster just waiting to happen,” Pearl said with a grimace. “We should warn her to take her time.”

Platinum put on a pained expression. “Look how excited she is. And she had just regained confidence as a trainer. Expressing our concerns translates to expressing our doubts of her skills. The last thing she needs right now is her seniors losing faith in her abilities.”

“Damn. Well, maybe Y’s other Pokémon can force the new Pokémon to stay in line. I was able to get the rest of my team to force the Mega…” Pearl trailed off as a new thought occurred. “… Oh. Y has _three_ new Pokémon, all Dragon type, and all about to evolve into their final stages at similar times. The first half of her team won’t be able to restrain the second half if they go berserk.”

“We must keep an eye on her new Pokémon at all times,” Platinum said. She sent out her Glaceon and let it rest on her lap. “If her Pokémon begins to rampage, we have to restrain it immediately.”

“Right. For now, we’ll watch if her Zweilous evolves and goes bonkers. If it does… you’ll have to subtly warn her about the other Pokémon.”

Diamond’s Steelix whacked the Zweilous backwards with its tail after shrugging off a Dragon Pulse. The Zweilous struggled up to its feet and snarled in anger, as its frustrations grew over its inability to deal any damage. And as it began to shoot off Dark Pulse after Dark Pulse, its body began to glow brightly. Y gasped in surprise but immediately recognized what was happening, and began to jump in excitement.

“It’s happening!” she exclaimed, as the Zweilous was soon engulfed in light.

Pearl grabbed his Infernape’s Pokéball in preparation as Platinum watched carefully. Diamond got his Steelix to halt its attacks, and watched as the Zweilous grew bigger and bigger. And before long, the light faded away as it finished evolving into Hydreigon.

The Hydreigon hovered above the ground and stared up at the sky, seemingly stunned motionless as it was able to see with its eyes for the first time ever. It sniffed at the air and looked around itself, taking in the surroundings. And upon spotting Diamond and his Steelix, it let out a deafening roar and its six wings flapped aggressively.

‘ _Flamethrower!_ ’ Pearl jumped to his feet with his Infernape’s Pokéball in his hand. “Dia! Take cover!”

Diamond quickly obeyed his friend’s suggestion and ducked for cover as his Steelix wrapped its body around him, forming a wall. Just as the Steelix finished covering its trainer, the Hydreigon shot a huge Flamethrower at the two.

“Diamond!” Platinum cried out, momentarily horrified at the sight of watching the Steelix completely engulfed in fire. She clenched her teeth and sent out her Empoleon to combat the Flamethrower.

“S – Saza! What are you doing?!” Y yelled as she saw the Steelix engulfed in flames.

Platinum’s Empoleon successfully stopped the Flamethrower, and the Steelix was able to uncoil itself. Fortunately, Diamond was unscathed, as his Pokémon had successfully protected him.

“Hey, hey! Don’t try to cook my rice cakes!” he shouted as Platinum’s Empoleon stepped in front of him while the girl herself ran towards him.

The Hydreigon reacted to her movements by shooting her with a Dragon Pulse. Platinum’s Glaceon formed an ice barrier to protect its trainer and blocked the attack. The Hydreigon saw its attacks nullified, and took it as a challenge. It trembled and snarled again as its destructive urges skyrocketed and it charged up a ball of fire in all three mouths, preparing for a triple Flamethrower with enough power to burn through the ice barrier.

“Restrain it!” Pearl yelled to his Infernape.

The Infernape charged towards the Hydreigon, preparing for a Close Combat. Y quickly jumped in the way, however, with her arms outstretched.

“No, no! Stop!” she cried out.

The Infernape hastily aborted its attack and slammed the brakes in a sense, skidding along the ground to avoid running the girl over.

“Hey, get out of the way!” Pearl yelled as he reached for another Pokéball.

Y turned to face her Hydreigon, with her arms stretched out to try to stop it from attacking again. “Saza! Stop!” she cried out, jumping to get its attention. “Calm down!”

The Hydreigon looked down as a new challenger appeared in its sights, and aimed the triple Flamethrower at this new obstruction. Y gasped as her Hydreigon was aiming the Flamethrower directly at her. And at this distance with that much power, if the attack was unleashed, there was nothing she could do.

“Y! Get back!” Platinum cried out, gripping her Lopunny’s Pokéball with one hand and reaching for her Mega Ring with the other.

“S – Saza… STOP!” Y cried out loudly in desperation.

The Hydreigon was about to unleash the Flamethrower when it suddenly hesitated. It slowly dissipated the Flamethrower and leaned in closer, trying to hear that familiar voice again. It sniffed at the air and caught a whiff of a familiar scent.

“It’s me, Saza,” Y said again, trying to keep her voice from shaking. “Do you… remember me?”

The Hydreigon suddenly let out a short howl as it recognized its trainer’s scent and voice. And with a happy growl, it reached forward with all three heads, wanting to be pet and cuddled. Y let out a sigh of relief and embraced her newly evolved Hydreigon, gently stroking its main head as it rubbed its face into her cheek.

“Oh, Saza… you scared me so much!” she cried out as she slowly dropped to her knees. “But I’m so glad you remembered me!”

Her Hydreigon followed her down, still growling happily. The three Sinnoh Dex Holders slowly lowered their guard.

“It appears to have recognized its trainer,” Platinum said, still holding onto her Lopunny’s Pokéball. “Perhaps now, it will no longer attack everything in sight.”

“Yeah. But it’s just as you said, Miss Lady,” Pearl said grimly. “You have to warn her.”

Platinum turned her attention to Diamond when he came close enough. “Diamond… are you okay?” she asked, putting a hand on his arm.

Diamond put a piece of rice cake in his mouth. “Yep! I’m fine!” He glanced at her Empoleon and gave her a bright smile. “Thank you for the quick help with Empoleon!”

Platinum let out a sigh of relief. “I was not quick enough. I am very glad that you are safe.” She then looked over at Y and hardened her expression. “Please excuse me for a while.”

“… What’s going on?” Diamond asked Pearl as Platinum walked over towards Y.

As Pearl filled him in, Platinum reached Y and stood behind her. The Hydreigon snarled at her again, but quickly backed down after Y gave it a scolding look.

“I’m so sorry for what happened, Miss Platinum,” Y said, bowing to her senior. “I promise it won’t happen again.”

Platinum quietly looked down at her junior, wondering how she should approach the issue. On one hand, she was really glad that her junior was safe and that no one was hurt. But on the other… this was too dangerous. Now she had to make a choice between preserving her junior’s pride as a trainer, and the safety of the girl herself and those around her.

Y squirmed on her knees, feeling quite nervous and steeling herself for the inevitable berating from her senior. It was a damn good thing that no one got hurt, especially Diamond. If he was singed at all from that Flamethrower, there would be no respite from Platinum’s wrath.

“… Y, follow me, please,” Platinum said at long last, her voice sounding colder than intended. “We need to talk…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As of September 5, 2020, I have retired from writing due to health reasons. As a result, all active stories of mine have been discontinued. I've posted "spoilers" for Legacy on my Tumblr, listing out the plot points divided by characters that I had planned for the story. You can see them under the "misc" tag.


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